Star Wars analogy

I just had to share this.  This is from the blog “People I Want to Punch in the Throat”.  She invited her husband to guest post on their child rearing secrets.  It was a great post about using the bribery & blackmail technique.  But the paragraph below is so true to many more techniques than just that one.  I’ve always said you have to discipline young if you want your kids to respect you when they are older.  Check this out.

You can click the paragraph to go to the original blog post.

Absolutely love this analogy.  Kudo’s to Hubs.
I just hope they don’t get mad for stealing the paragraph, but I linked it so hopefully it’ll be cool.  If not, read it quick before I have to delete it.

Frustrating Saturday

I love technology.  But nothing frustrates me more, then when it doesn’t work.  I have all the patience in the world when I need it.  But if you’re an inanimate object, you better do what your supposed to do.  Or your liable to get thrown out of a moving car.

So yesterday, I had to take my daughter to her “World Thinking Day” project at the Salvation Army in Goshen.  Now I know Goshen a little bit, but not that well.  So I figured, once I got there, I would load up the address and use the navigation to get me there.  So we got a late start so you know I was already frustrated.  It was my fault we were late so I wasn’t pissed at anyone but myself.  But you know how when your in a hurry, everybody drives slow, you hit every freaking red light. AAAHHHH.

Well, we finally are heading into town.  So I break out my phone and type in Salvation Army on the navigation.  It comes up saying searching for directions.  Problem is, it never left that screen.  For a few minutes it was like that so I exited the screen.  Went to Google, and typed in Salvation Army, Goshen, IN. and hit the search button.  It kept spinning, and spinning.  WTF?  I was getting pissed.  I’m already downtown by now, so I know I’ve probably passed it.  So I drive up and down on Main st. because I remember it being on Main.  Up and down, back and forth.  Trying to figure out which side of Main st. it is. I need North Main but all the signs say South Main.  I know, then go North right.  Well, the problem with that was, the damn road ran East/West.

At this point, I’m already half an hour late.  I’m to the point where I want to throw my phone out the window.  I take a chance and turn my phone off, then back on.  Still nothing.  What good is a 4G phone if the damn data isn’t working.  I could text and call, but no data, which means no internet.  I keep driving back and forth a few more times and then I hear the Ebay tone go off.  I grab my phone and sure enough, my data is back.  So I GPS the address, and I go in a big circle to get back to where it is.

And to sum up why driving up and down South Main, looking for North Main didn’t work.  Apparently I got to North Main but didn’t know it.  But I didn’t go far enough on North Main because apparently the road changes.  Look.

Notice the N Main St. at the bottom, and see how it goes around the corner and turns into Middlebury St.  But at the top N Main St. continues on.  Somehow, I’m supposed to know that I was supposed to turn on that little side street to continue on to Main St.  Stupid Goshen, no wonder I never go there.

Had my GPS worked I would have gotten into town, turned left on 15, which turned into North Main and bam I would have been there.

Weekly Catch up

I really need to redo my blog roll as I follow a lot more blogs.  I’ve spread out my blog reading away from sports and started reading other blogs.  I’ve gotten into some of the parenting blogs.  Not your usual, this is how you raise your kids, but more, actual stories and happenings in (usually) a mother’s life.  I really only follow them if they add humor along with their posts.  Those blogs have actually inspired me to blog a little more, which is why I have been getting more written posts here.  But more on that later, I though I would do a weekly catch up here, once a week or so, and plug my other blogs that I dabble with.

Laws Reviews – While I mainly started this blog to help keep track of what movies I’ve watched and books I’ve read.  I’ve tried branching out a some other stuff to review as well.  I’m actually still looking for my first follower on that site.

• Droid Razor – purchased a new phone a few weeks ago.
• Final Destination 5 – Movie review.
• Contagion – Movie review.

Most viewed post this week – Cowboys & Aliens

My Sports Obsession – I use this blog the most, I have 70 followers and get all kinds of comments.  So I tend to post there a lot more.  I’ve posted there 101 times already in 2012.  It’s mainly about sports and sports cards.

• Seems like I’ve been here before – Starting up childhood habits again with my cards.
• Player Collection Spotlight–Tom Seaver – I highlight a card from my Player Collections.
• 1981 Topps-Zisk, Kemp, Foote, Geronimo – I highlight 4 cards in my quest to complete the 1981 Topps set.
• 1973 Topps-May, A’s, Bryant, Kingman – I highlight 4 cards in my quest to complete the 1973 Topps set.
• Ebay Pick-ups – I highlight my recent ebay purchases.
• 1981 Topps-Petry, Smith, Evans, Stanley - I highlight 4 cards in my quest to complete the 1981 Topps set.
• 1973 Topps-Gura, Astros, Jackson, Splittorff - I highlight 4 cards in my quest to complete the 1973 Topps set.
• Trade with the Dimwit – Trade post with a fellow blogger.
• Contest Pimpage – Highlighting a fellow bloggers contest.
• Player Collection Spotlight-Tom Seaver – I highlight a card from my Player Collections.

Most viewed post this week – Today’s 9-Gordon Beckham, page 4

My Sports Obsession Tumblr – A blog where I post all the images from My Sports Obsession as well as other photos.

• 3 University of Michigan posts.
• 10 White Sox posts.
• 9 other MLB posts.
• 1 Indianapolis Colts post.

Total of 23 posts.

Random Thoughts from a Random Guy – If you’re here, you know what this one is about.

• Be AFRAID, be very AFRAID! – A post about the way kids are raised these days.
• Who was that guy? – A funny story where I get to play the Dumb Ass.
• Insane in the Brain – Ever get a song stuck in your head and don’t know where it came from, yeah, me too.

Most viewed post this week – Who was that guy?

Too Many Manninghams – I guest post on this University of Michigan sports blog.

• Couple of cards with Hart – I highlight a few Mike Hart autographs I picked up on Ebay.

 

As you can see, I spend a little time blogging.  These don’t even include a few others that I do privately for myself.  My sports Obsession has been around for almost a year, Random Thoughts from a Random Guy has been around for a little over a year but it has transformed a few times on what exactly I was doing with it.  Dennis started Too Many Manninghams and I started Laws Reviews and My Sports Obsession Tumblr on the 1st of this year so they’ve only been around for a few months.

I enjoy writing blogs, and hopefully I will have some good content for this blog in the future.  I have some ideas on what I’m doing here, now I just hope to generate some followers so it actually feels like I’m sharing with somebody.  I’ve only gotten 1 follower other than my wife on this blog and I picked him up because he’s a friend on Facebook. 

Insane in the Brain

While I enjoy music, I don't love it. I'm not one of those guys who can name a bunch of songs when you give me an artist. And I don't know who all the members of my favorite band are. But I do enjoy music which is a good thing since it apparently enjoys being in my head. I know we all do this, but I'll share my day today with you.

If you don't know me, my radio is set on the local rock station. The only time I take it off that is if they are broadcasting a game or something that's not music. I have a wide range of what I'll listen to, but rock is my preference.

This morning, I came into work, and the song "Masterpiece" is stuck in my head.

“I've found a masterpiece in you
A work of art, its true
And I treasure you my love”  - Atlantic Starr

I could not tell you the last time I heard that song. But there it was, all freaking morning.

I sat in my wife's car at first break because she had brought me breakfast. I don't know if I heard this song in there or not, but afterwards, I kept hearing "Tubthumping"

“I get knocked down, and I get up again
Your never going to keep me down
I get knocked down, and I get up again
Your never going to keep me down”  - Chumbawamba

But eventually my head went back to "Masterpiece". Until I started to type this that is. I was pondering how to open this post and I was thinking about people who are really into music and this line popped in my head "MUSIC IS MY LIFE!" That would be from C&C Music Factory.

That's how it starts, I hear a few words from a song in a conversation and it kicks my brain into jukebox mode. For instance, we have a customer who's name is American Warming. Every time I read that on a ticket, I hear Lenny Kravitz belting out "American Woman"

“American woman, stay away from me
American woman, mama let me be
Don't come hanging around my door
I don't want to see your face no more”  - Lenny Kravitz

Or I did a couple of things at work, kind of brain farts if you will, and I was talking to Adam and told him I’m losing my mind.  Next thing I know, I’m walking away with this running through my head.

“Was I out of my head? Was I out of my mind?
How could I have ever been so blind?
I was waiting for an indication
It was hard to find
Don't matter what I say only what I do
I never mean to do bad things to you
So quiet but I finally woke up
If you're sad then its time you spoke up too”  - Fastball

This seems to happen a lot at work, not so much at home.  I guess my mind wanders more there.  I don’t know, all I know is some days it drives me

“Insane in da membrane
Insane in the brain”  - Cypress Hill

Who was that guy?

I was at work earlier this week, and was walking towards a guy that they brought in to work on the chillers.  I realize most of you don't know what a chiller is, but its really not that important.  Point is, he doesn't work where I do, he's hired in to work on machinery.

As I approach him, I do the obligatory nod and say hey.  He says "hey Jeff, how's it going?" "I'm good, how about yourself?"  Of course, in my head, I'm thinking who the hell is this guy? How do I know him? He doesn't look familiar to me. How does he know my name?  He responds "not too bad" and we continue to walk away from each other.  And I was still at a loss for a bit when it suddenly hit me, now I know where he got my name.

Dumb ass.

So I’m thinking, when I see someone with their name on their shirt.  I’m going to start talking to them and call them by name.  Just to screw with them.

Be AFRAID, be very AFRAID

I said I was going to try to write a post a day.  Well, here’s todays.  And it’s not even one I had saved to write.

My wife and I took my son to his Scout awards program today.  It certainly wasn’t worth the 3 hours time there for the 5 minutes my son got his awards.  Part of that time was eating so it’s forgivable.  It was a carry in so lots of food.  But here’s my gripe.

What happened to sitting and keeping your kids quiet?  I understand giving them something to do to keep the occupied, but bring a whole freaking set of toys.  And not only that, but it was the kind of toy that made noise.  As was evident when we were having a moment of silence for a scout leader in the hospital.  All was quiet, except for that damn toy.  And the grandparent sitting next to the kid giggling because of the toy making noise during the moment of silence.

Maybe I’m just a dick of a parent, I don’t know.  My son sat there quietly during the awards.  While the damn kids behind us were playing and talking so loudly that we couldn’t hear half of what was being said.  The kids sitting in front of us were playing angry birds.  What happened to giving respect to the person up front talking.  Or how about after we were done eating when a bunch of kids were shooting baskets and dribbling basketballs at the hoop right next to the tables.  WHERE THE HELL ARE THESE KIDS PARENTS!

I realize that this thing is boring to the kids, but wouldn’t that be a teaching experience of why you have to sit and behave to show RESPECT.  Because let’s face it, kids have no respect for nothing, including themselves anymore.  And you can say it’s because of the other kids they hang with or all the electronics, TV, music, games, ect.  It all starts at home.  When you teach respect, you get respect.  Instead of trying to pacify your kids with electronics, try being a parent, and making them sit still.

All the parents, come here and gather around, I have a secret for you.  Closer.  A little closer.  Here it is.  Your in charge, not your kid.  I’ll give you a minute to let that sink in.  I don’t know what the hell happened when parents became afraid of the kids.  The kids should be afraid of the parents.  You can love your kids and have loving, close moments with your kids, but when it comes to them doing things they shouldn’t, they should be afraid of what is going to happen when you find out.  And they should fear that you will find out.  Because you ALWAYS find out.

I understand why kids do the stupid things they do, because if I could get away with it at that age, I would have too.  But I was afraid of what would happen.  That’s right, I grew up with consequences to my actions.  Kids now-a-days have no consequences to their actions.  I see it everyday.  There is no way in hell that my kids are going to talk to me the way I see kids talk to their parents out in public and certainly not at home.  You know why, because my kids are AFRAID of what will happen if they do.  And there is plenty you can do without laying a hand on them, for all you people screwing up your kids by not spanking.  Find what they love, and take it away.  Oh yeah, that’ll get their attention.  My kids get grounded from electronics.  All of them.  No TV, no mp3, no video games, nothing that takes batteries or electricity.  Minor offenses denotes an earlier bed time.  But, they do know, I’m not above spanking them.  It’s been a long time since I’ve had too, but they know I will.  Which makes them afraid.  Which keeps them in line.  Sure, they test their limits to see what they can get away with.  My brother and I did too, but we didn’t dare cross that line.  You know why?  We were AFRAID of our parent.

Blogging

I’ve been trying to come up with blog posts for all my blogs and I’ve come up with a few ideas.  So I posted the title and saved it as a draft, now my goal is that every day, to sit and type out one of those posts.  Here’s a helpful Coming Soon so to speak.

Laws Reviews – I’ve got 4 or so movies to do, plus I plan on doing a review on the Kindle Fire and Motorola Droid Razer.  The movie ones I’ve just been lazy, the product ones I like to wait a few weeks before reviewing them because they are always so awesome when you bring them home, but then you start seeing the flaws.  So I’ve intentionally waited on those.  So in review – Movies = Lazy Ass.  Products = Right where I planned.

My Personal Collection – I’m actually probably going to discontinue this one.  It was just a place to store my personal collection cards.  I’ve been slowly transferring all my pictures of cards to Picassa Web Albums (that could be a future Laws Reviews post as well).  So much faster to post, I did all my player collection in something like half an hour.

My Sports Obsession – I’ve always got stuff to post this one but I do have some scanning to do to get a few posts ready.

My Sports Obsession Tumblr – I’ve queued up some posts.  I’ve changed the queue number to post only 3 a day instead of 6, just so when I have stuff to post, they’ll last longer.  I have, I think 15 posts queued up and waiting so it’s good for awhile.  Although with every post to My Sports Obsession, I get more material for this blog.

Random Thoughts from a Random Guy – That would be this one that your reading right now for those slow readers out there.  I have 3 or 4 titled posts waiting to be typed out.  And a few vague idea floating around.  I’ve been reading a lot of other bloggers out there and am trying to get inspired.

Too Many Manninghams – This isn’t technically my blog, but I guest publish, and like My Sports Obsession, I have a few cards to scan and post.

Maybe I’ll have a post here once in awhile as an update to my other blogs.  Maybe not.  Who the hell knows anymore.  I’m trying to write, damn it!  Give me a break.

Me, a writer?

I would love to be.  And some say I’m good at it.  I don’t know if I agree with that, but I do like to write.  Why don’t I?  Basically, I don’t know what to write about.  I have a sports blog, where I write about, well, sports.  I have a reviews site, where I write mostly movie reviews and a few other things I might review.  I started this blog awhile back so I could write about other stuff.  But I never have anything to write about so it has become more of a humor site where I post things I find funny.  Mainly because I don’t know what else to post.  If your wondering where this is coming from, I wrote “The Year my Life Changed Forever” over on my sports blog.  It was sports related, but also from my past.  I posted the link on my Facebook so I had comments from friends and family telling me I was a good writer and they enjoyed the post.

I’ve been told that most my life.  And I take pride when I write something worth reading.  I can remember a satire story I had to write for class in school.  I think I still have it somewhere in a box.  I enjoyed writing it and the people that read it liked it, or at least told me they did.  I kept a journal for about a year on a particular subject, and I let somebody else read it.  And they complimented me.  I’ve written letters to people and I get compliments.  I’ve written short stories to my wife, and she loves them.  I get free Kindle books, and a lot of times they are short stories.  And I’ve even considered writing some kind of short story or “novella” and throw it on Kindle and see what happens.  I really do enjoy writing.  But I have one problem when it does come to writing.

I have nothing worth writing about.  I read a couple of blogs that post stories from their lives.  My life is pretty boring.  I read a couple that post about stupid things or people.  I could write about that stuff that annoys me, except I don’t really hold on to my anger.  So unless someone pisses me off while I’m sitting on my laptop at home, it probably won’t happen.  I do a lot of my thinking while at work.  I’ve done my job long enough that I can do most of it without even thinking so my mind tends to wander.  So this is when that idea hits me, oh, I should blog about that.  And I’ll even compose it in my head for awhile.  But then I get off work, pick up kids or head home, shower or do whatever and the thought is gone.  I’ve made notes for myself so I’ll remember to write about it, but by the time I get around to writing it, I’ve lost the passion for the subject and usually I’m just not in the mood to put it to paper, so to speak.

So essentially, my issue is, I lead way to boring of a life to write.  I have no imagination to come up with original content.  My mom will attest to that, she’s always trying to get me out of my PJ’s and off the couch into the real world.  Maybe I just need to get out there and do something.  Nah, that doesn’t interest me.  Only thing I really enjoy, are sports and family.  Most family don’t want to be written about and I already have a place to write about sports.  Besides, let’s face it, I have no followers to this blog anyways.  So why write if nobody is going to read it.  Most of my page views are the few links I post on my Facebook or Twitter.  I tell you what, if I get more than 10 page views, then I’ll try to write something.  If you have an idea about what I should write about, leave a comment.  Better yet, follow the blog over there to the right or at the top left.  So I know somebody is out there.