What I've Learned

1. It's your money and what you choose to do with it and with whom you choose to do something with, is your business.. but, some people will always try to make it their business.

2. People really don't know what will make them happy. They say they do and when they get what they said would make them happy, they find that they are still miserable.

3. I can't worry about stuff I can't control. Nuff said.

4. I'm definitely smarter and more astute than I was twenty years ago... but, I'm slower and physically weaker too!

5. I find it humorous now of days when I run into someone from high school, particularly someone who didn't like me but, they are so glad to see me... shaking my hand and all. Dude, you hated my guts, remember? Babe, you wouldn't give me the time of day back then. What's up with this?

6. In time, we all have selective amnesia (see number #5). Parents forget that they were bad asses when they were kids and people who wouldn't give you the time of day a few years ago, suddenly have a new found interest in you and remember you a lot differently than you remember them seeing you.

7. My uncle used to tell me, "If you're the smartest one in the group of friends you're with, you need to get new friends." He meant, always associate with people who can teach you something and enrich your life.

8. I have always loved the feeling of just running and just feeling the wind whip against my cheeks. It's been the most freeing and liberating of times for me.

9. I was on a plane for 23 hours once. I was flying from Philadelphia to Japan. Japan was awesome and so was flying over the Pacific Ocean... but, I don't think I ever need to be up in the air that long ever again-lololol!

10. The biggest fool is the man who believes his own hype.

Saturday Seven (7 Things I'm Really Tired Of)

1. Auto Tune
It's hard enough you have rappers using it (Kanye West, Snoop Dogg) but now we have singers using it who don't really need it (Mary, Mary).

2. "Hot Ghetto Mess"
I am tired of people sending me emails with these ugly photos of fat people doing bizzarre things. This is so not funny anymore.

3. Beefs
Blogger beefs, beefs between rappers, and now... beefs between R&B Divas (Beyonce & Etta James... Beyonce & Aretha Franklin).

4. Rush Limbaugh
Hatin' from the sidelines and getting his numbskull listeners in a froth about the stimulus bill... so much so that they have now been calling in their senators and represenatives and pressuring them to vote against it. Will you get over it man? Your party lost, your candidate lost. He's your president too. How can you call yourself a patriot and publicly wish for your president to fail? I didn't agree with a lot that President Bush did but, I never wished for him to fail. If he fails, the government fails and thus, all of us within it fails. Get a grip Rush. Go somewhere, sit down, and shut up (as my late grandmother would say)!

5. Chain Emails
I want people to please to stop sending me emails that threaten me with bad luck or disaster if I don't forward it to 12 more unlucky people. I'm trying to work, how about you?

6. The Recession
It's just beginning and I'm already tired of it!

7. Winter
Nuff said.

"Good News" (Heard Any Lately?)

Obamicon.Me

Senate moderates worked to cut tens of billions of dollars from the economic stimulus bill in the hopes of clearing the way for passage Thursday as the government spit out grim new jobless figures and President Obama warned of more bad news to come. He said, "The time for talk is over. The time for action is now." He implored lawmakers in both parties to "rise to this moment" and send him legislation to begin fixing the worst economic crisis in decades.

President Obama added that he would "love to see additional improvements" in the bill, a gesture to the moderates from both parties at work on trying to trim the $920 billion price tag. But with the Senate plodding through a fourth day of debate, earlier talk of a large, bi-partisan vote for the legislation was fading. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said, "I've explained to people in that group, they cannot hold the president of the United States hostage. If they think they're going to rewrite this bill and Barack Obama is going to walk away from what he is trying to do for the American people, they've got another thought coming."

The Republicans countered that neither the president nor the Democratic congressional leaders have been willing to seek common ground on the first major bill of the new administration. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona and President Obama's opponent in the presidential campaign) said, "We're not having meaningful negotiations. It's a bad way to start." Further, in an Associated Press interview, Senator McCain said that President Obama "gave the Democrats the leeway to basically shut out Republicans, starting with the House and now here in the Senate, and I don't think that's good."

Senator McCain's penchant for working across party lines has irritated fellow Republicans in the past but, he was not taking part in bipartisan talks on trimming the stimulus bill. Nearly 20 senators from both parties met twice during the day and reviewed a list of possible cuts totaling nearly $80 billion dollars. They included the elimination of at least $40 billion in aid to the states, which have budget crises of their own, as well as $1.4 billion ticketed for the National Science Foundation.

There was no sign the group of self-appointed compromisers had agreed to support the reductions but, even if they had the numbers, they were far short of what some were looking for. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine, who met with President Obama at the White House on Wednesday) said, "The President made a strong case for a proposal that would be in the neighborhood of $800 billion."

The legislation is a blend of federal spending and tax cuts that supporters say can create or preserve at least 3 million jobs. They cite the tax cuts for lower-income workers, as well as more money for jobless benefits, worker training, food stamps, health care, education, and public works projects such as highways and mass transit.

Critics contend the bill is bloated with spending for items that won't create jobs, such as smoking prevention programs or efforts to combat a future pandemic flu outbreak. And, while the polls show President Obama is popular and the public supports recovery legislation, Republicans have maneuvered in the past several days to identify and ridicule relatively small items in the bill. (It seems that they've been watching Rush Limbaugh a little too much.)

Whatever the public relations battle, the Republicans have tried (so far, without success) to reduce spending in the measure and were ready with additional attempts during the day. The legislation is a key early test for President Obama, who has been in office just two weeks and has made economic recovery his top priority (which sets him apart from the last person to sit in his seat). President Obama's warnings have become increasingly dire and in remarks to employees at the Department of Energy, he said... "Today, we learned that last week the number of new unemployment claims jumped to 626,000. Tomorrow, we're expecting another dismal jobs report on top of the 2.6 million jobs that we lost last year. We've lost 500,000 jobs each month for the last two months." I keep asking myself is there any good news to be heard out there?

On the one hand, I applaud President Obama for telling people the truth and not telling people what they want to hear or in my case, need to hear... that everything is going to be alright, that somebody has more of a clue than I do and has the situation in hand. I have faith in our new President... I do. I just don't feel as hopeful about the future now of days. In 1982, the economic scenario of the nation was similar... jobs were being lost, unemployment was high, and I was just coming out of college and entering the work force. I watched as my fellow college graduates had to take all kinds of minimum wage jobs just to begin paying back those student loans. I imagine it's the same now or possibly worse. I imagine I was hopeful then because I was young and didn't know any better. I can't imagine any young college graduate now being as naive and unassuming as I was back then.

The "Great Communicator" Ronald Reagan was president then and he was able to tell Americans what they wanted to hear and make it all seem better. Maybe, there lies the real problem. We've had silver tongued, snake oil salesmen to sell us a bill of goods for so long that we haven't realized what was happening to us. And now, here we are... we've got a man in the White House who is telling us the truth... a truth we don't want to believe. I suppose it's time for us to be adults now and face the reality that there isn't going to be any good news coming for awhile.

Try to have a blessed weekend everyone.

MEM Date Night: The Women Vs. The Men

This past Saturday evening, me and my wife attended another Marriage Enrichment Ministry "Date Night" event with our church. This time, we all went bowling at Sproul Lanes in Springfield PA, a little suburb just outside of Philly. The facility and accommodations were great... 30+ lanes, an arcade, and the food... it was all the stuff you love to eat but also know that you shouldn't eat (cheesesteaks, hoagies, hot dogs, french fries, soft pretzels, etc).

There were about 12-13 couples present so we played league style, "The Women Vs. The Men". Our bowlers were all different ages and ranged from beginners (but, not so bad that "bumpers" were needed) to experts (those who brought their OWN balls, shoes, gloves, powder, etc.). I think that me and my wife are somewhere in between the beginners and experts (my daughter is the "real" bowler in our house). At any rate, we had an interesting mix of bowlers who set the stage for a little friendly competition between spouses, fellowship with other couples, and a lotta fun.

As for the outcome of the game... well, what do you think happened? Of course, "THE MEN" won... but, let me just say right here that there were some sistas present who could match some of the brothas "strike-for-strike" so, it wasn't an easy victory. The important thing is, we all had a good time and it felt really nice to take a break from all of the intense issues of the day (and the world around us) for a few hours, "kick back", and just have fun. Here are some photos of our evening together...




















Footnote: The previous MEM Date Night held in January was dinner and a movie. We all went to the California Pizza Kitchen (one of my favorite spots) to eat and we saw the T.D. Jakes film, "Not Easily Broken". The food was good and everyone really enjoyed the movie... but, unfortunately, nobody remembered to bring a camera!!!

Coffee Wars

There are two Starbucks and one Dunkin’ Donuts within one block of where I work. I don't know why there is a need for two Starbucks but, there they are. Both Starbucks are free-standing establishments with nice tables, comfortable couches, an upstairs, wifi-compatible, and hip music of all genres playing. One Starbucks even has two flat screen television monitors playing ESPN and CNN respectively.

If I ever get a laptop, Starbucks would be a great place for me to blog from on the road. There is only one problem... I don't like Starbucks coffee. It tastes like wet grass to me. Now, before I go any further, let me just say, to each his own. This is just my opinion and not the gospel truth by any means. If you like Starbucks coffee, that's cool... but, I don't.

I believe that I have stated either on this blog or my other one that my coffee of choice is Dunkin’ Donuts. I said once that Krispy Kreme donuts and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee is my ideal combination for a continental breakfast. Oh... and you can throw in some orange juice to balance it out. So, I was surfing the net yesterday (primarily the money section) and I came upon this tidbit...

Dunkin’ Donuts War On Starbucks
With the latte giant reeling from overexpansion and a softening economy, the doughnut maker took aim at its upscale rival. Now, McDonald's has joined the coffee fray as well. Can Starbucks pull through?

In late 2007, Dunkin’ Donuts made a surprising announcement: In a national taste test in 10 major U.S. cities, the chain had put its most popular brew up against Starbucks and clobbered the coffee conglomerate 58% to 42%. The test was held in two cities where Dunkin’ Donuts had a distinct disadvantage: Los Angeles, where the company doesn't have a single store, and Starbucks' hometown of Seattle. "We wanted to show that nationwide, people prefer Dunkin’ Donuts to the perceived leader," says Frances Allen, the company's brand-marketing officer.

Armed with the test results, Dunkin’ Donuts immediately launched a national multimedia advertising campaign that essentially declared war on Starbucks. The timing was perfect: The latte giant was overextended, battered, and vulnerable. Its stock had slid from the mid-$30s to the mid-$20s over the previous year (it was below $10 this week) and its "on-every-corner" strategy had left it overextended with too many unprofitable locations, just when the global economy was about to fall off a cliff.

Meanwhile, Starbucks is facing an attack on another front: McDonald's had joined the coffee fray as well, positioning itself as an alternative provider of premium coffee. The fast food giant plans to outfit most of its 14,000+ U.S. stores with a McCafé, a coffee bar that will sell espresso-based drinks such as cappuccinos and lattes.

I could gloat right now but, it's just coffee... I don't take it personally. I should mention that the lone Dunkin’ Donuts near my workplace is so small, that after you place your order, you don't even have enough room to count your change... yet, this establishment has customers out the door and down the street nearly every morning. Apparently, I'm not the only one who feels the way I do.

What Did You Eat On Super Bowl Sunday?

Okay, maybe it wasn't quite this big...
but, it was close and it was good!

Honest Scrap Award

Well, I'm tagged again! This time, many "thanks" go out to CurvyGurl over at The CurvyGurl Chronicles for honoring me with the Honest Scrap Award. We have been fans of each other's blogs for a while now. So, without further delay, let's get to it...

Honest Scrap Award Rules:

1. List 10 honest and interesting things about yourself.
2. Honor 7 other bloggers with the award.

10 Honest & Interesting Things About Me:

1. I have never blogged about it but, I'm a huge boxing fan.

2. The smell of fish can actually make me nauseous.

3. I've never been to California (I've been everywhere else though).

4. My mother and I shared the same astrological sign (Aries.)

5. My grandson (January) and I (March) were both born on the 24th day of the month.

6. I was about 5'9" until I turned 15 years old... then, I shot up past 6' and haven't looked back (or down) ever since.

7. I ran the fastest recorded quarter-mile in my high school's history in 1976. My cousin Lamont broke my record in 1984. This proves that getting old is truly not fun sometimes.

8. My mother named me after an actor. My first name was his last name. Do you wanna take a guess as to who it was? The answer is Brian Keith (now deceased star of the old TV series "Family Affair"). Naming me after an actor is kinda fitting... I've often had a flair for the dramatic, or so I've been told.

9. High Noon was one of my favorite movies.I must have watched it six times. I always identified with Gary Cooper, who had to face the bad guys all by himself because everybody else ran away. I've often had that alone against the world feeling.

10. I have always marched to the beat of my own drum. I guess after reading this blog, most of you have come to realize that about me.

My Honors List:

1. A Go Bytch (Go Bytch)
She's becoming more sophisticated and astute as a blogger with every single post.

2. Rainahavock (To Rain Of Havock)
Mature beyond her 18 years.

3. Reggie (Purple Rain)
With a total of six blogs, he's the "Beast" of the blogging world.

4. SLC (Perspective)
The "Prime Minister" of the blogging world.

5. Plez (PlezWorld)
My frat brother and the blogger who keeps it the realist.

6. Dreamy (The Dreamy One)
My buddy who's been going through something... Keep your head up!

7. A.J. Brown (A.J. Brown)
My Chi-Town buddy and a great blogger in her own right.


Enjoy and have fun everybody!

Saturday Seven (7 Things I'm Looking Forward To)

1.The First Day of Spring
I hate Winter.

2.The Super Bowl
Even though my team isn't there, it's still the best game in town.

3.The NBA All Star Game
Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard,Yao Ming... Are you kiddin' me? It's a Basketball lovers dream!

4. A Stimulus Check
I need to be bailed out... for real!

5. My Income Tax Return
Same as above.

6. A Well-Deserved Vacation
Well, I deserve it!

7. A New Car
Nuff said.

And, did I mention the first day of spring?

Think Of Something Happy

"Happy 3rd Birthday Boogs!"

Yesterday's post about the man and woman who lost their jobs and felt so much despair that they made the horrific decision to kill themselves and their children upset me a lot. I read that post after I wrote it and was filled with a sadness I haven't felt in a long time. When I was a child, I was always able to bounce back after something bad happened to me by bringing up a memory of something good that happened to me. It's something that has stayed with me most of my life... the ability in the worst of times to think of something happy.

I pulled up my blog and I stared at the photo of that family and I was wondering what I was going to write today. I didn't want to write about anything else in the news. The news has been and probably will be very depressing for a while. As I was preparing to write something altogether different, my grandson ran past me. He had a little cup of Motts Apple Sauce and he was eager to show it to me. I looked at him and remembered that just three years ago this month, he came into the world...

I sat in a hospital room with my daughter, who was in intense pain. Being a man and having never given birth or witnessed anyone being born. I really couldn't relate but, I could understand that she was in pain. I told her that she could hold my hand and squeeze it as tight as she needed to. We had been in the hospital all day awaiting his birth. It was now 9:30pm and he still hadn't arrived. There was a television on above us and I remember that "American Idol" was on (just like it is on right now, as I write this post).

On that night, I remember the performers were particularly bad and I was trying to get my daughter's attention off of her obvious pain and to watch the screen. One guy said, "People, tell me that I'm a cross between Ginuwine and Maxwell when I sing." He sang and let me tell you, Ginuwine and Maxwell have nothing to worry about! Midway through the song (he was singing "She's Out of My life" by Michael Jackson), he forgot the words. He asked Simon if he could start over again. They allowed him to do that and he stopped again, burst into tears, and ran off the stage. I was hysterical, slapping my knee with one hand while my daughter was squeezing my other hand like a vice grip. I pointed to the screen with my good hand and I told her, "You should really watch this show... these singers are giving me as much pain as you must be in." She didn't say anything but, I'm sure in her mind she was saying, "Don't bet on it!"

A couple of nurses came in and one put a cold towel across my daughter's forehead, while the other was telling her to "push". She tried valiantly but, nothing was happening. Meanwhile on the TV screen, another person was singing and attempting to do a back flip to close out the song. He lost his balance and fell into a group of chairs and hit the floor. I was in hysterics again until I felt her grip on my hand tightening. I looked around and it seemed as if twenty doctors were in the room all at once (really, it was about eight or nine). They were all talking feverishly fast and imploring my daughter to PUSH... PUSH... PUSH!!! Finally, I don't remember if it was my wife or one of the nurses but I heard someone say, "I see his head!"

Then, I heard everyone in the room say, "Ohhhhhhhhh..." I looked up and there was the little fella... all 8lbs + 7ozs of him. My daughter was relieved and my wife was ecstactic (I think she was the first one to hold him). I was happy because my daughter let go of my hand and this little fella grabbed a hold of my heart...

aka "The Booga Wooga"
January 24, 2006 @ 9:59pm

Collateral Damage

Photo: Ervin Antonio Lupoe (top left); his wife, Ana (top right); and their five children-- Brittney (top), twin girls Jaszmin and Jassely, and twin boys Benjamin and Christian.

"After a horrendous ordeal, my wife and I felt it better to end our lives ... and why leave our children in someone else's hands?" These are the shocking words of 40 year old Ervin Antonio Lupoe in what is believed to be a suicide note written before he decided to kill his wife, eight year old daughter, twin boys, twin girls, and then end his own life. This shocking crime scene was called the most grizzlie crime scene witnessed by case hardeed L.A. Homicide detectives in years.

This young upwardly mobile Black couple lived in a nice three-story house in the suburb of Los Angelas. Both the husband and his 39 year old wife worked as lab technicians at Kaiser-Permanentes West Los Angelas Medical Center until a few weeks ago,when both were fired from their jobs for reasons that are still "sketchy" at best.

Ervin Antonio Lupoe said that he and his wife were being investigated for "misrepresentation of our employment to an outside agency for the benefit of child care." He said that the initial interview was on December 19th. When he reported to work on December 23rd, it seems that he was allegedly told by a supervisor, "I don't know why you even bothered to come to work. You should've blown your brains out."

Now, a family of seven lies dead. Officials at Kaiser Permanentes have said that they "find it hard to believe that any manager or supervisor would have told Lupoe to take his life." Of course, they are going to say that... In fact, they better say that because I can see a nice lawsuit brewing if they didn't.

The point is, I can imagine how hard Christmas must have been for this family of seven with both individuals suddenly without employment... morgtage, car notes, and utility bills looming... health care cut off and no money to even think about Christmas gifts. I can imagine how hopeless this couple must have felt but, I can't imagine it being so hopeless that both the man and the woman made the horrifying decision to end their lives and take their childrens lives too so that they wouldn't be parentless and alone in the world.

I would like to say that this horrific murder-suicide is the collateral damage of an economy gone bad and that America should expect more incidents like this in the coming years as more families wind up without jobs and feeling desperate. I sincerely hope that I am wrong. I keep asking myself why did these two feel that hopeless? They were both college graduates and skilled individuals. You can't tell me that they couldn't have found employment in the future or had the economic outlook become that bleak to them?

There are questions that will never be answered... questions that only Mr. and Mrs. Lupoe know the answers to. I ask myself everyday if this is only the beginning of some really hard times and if I'm prepared to deal with them if this is?

Stimulusation

Okay, that's not an actual word but you gotta admit, it's a catchy enough title to make you actually read this, right? One of my readers responded to my last post by saying that, although she applauded President Obama's action of international goodwill by closing Gitmo and places like it around the world, what concerned her most right now was the economic situation in this country. The Stimulus Bill... Let's talk about it.

From what I hear, this bill has ballooned to a whopping $850 billion dollars. This was done after negotiations with his Democratic allies in Congress, who I understand wanted more provisions and re-wrote some of his tax proposals. This is what has driven the price of this stimulus bill even higher than it was when first proposed... something I can already see that might not go over so well with the Republicans and some moderates in the President's own party.

The Democrats are trying to use the economic recovery bill to extend a tax cut for middle to upper income taxpayers. A lot of members of President Obama's transition team don't feel as though that will boost the economy and after all, isn't that the order of business for the day?

Both Democrats and Republicans feel very strongly about using the stimulus package to fix the alternative minimum tax which would prevent more than 20 million additional tax filers from having to pay it. For one year alone, that would take about $70 billion out of the $300 billion President Obama has set aside for tax cuts alone in his $850 billion stimulus plan.

If we look past the tax cuts, there is the $3,000.00 job creation tax credit, which a lot of Democrats and Republicans say is "unworkable" and will probably be knocked down or at least cut off and saved for another day. Both parties are in surprising agreement that Obama's pro-business provision (which would allow companies who have posted losses last year to get refunds for taxes paid as far back as five years ago) is also "unworkable". You'd think that Republicans (anyway) would love this since they are supposed to be so pro-business. It seems like that bi-partisanism has worked in uniting, at least for now, some people in both parties against him.

Well, it seems as though the honeymoon is over. President Obama has the unfortunate position of not only having to fight Republicans (he and we expected that) but, people in his own party (he and we didn't expect that). He wants to make sure that the wealthy pay some taxes and I can see that becoming a bone of contention too. He may not be beholden to any lobbyists or big business interests but the folks that he works with most certainly are and it's going to be a long time before that is changed, if ever. I know he means well but, that beast is what it is.

The Obama stimulus plan will continue to morph until it becomes acceptable to both the House and Senate and I believe he will get it passed, despite the fact that it originally started at $725 billion and has jumped to $850 billion. He has said that we can't just sit around and do nothing. We've got to do something. I'm not an economist and I won't pretend to know if his plan will help the economy or not but, what is the alternative? If someone else has a better plan, I'm sure we are all ears.

"Gitmo"

President Barack Obama has decided to close the notorious holding facility known as Guantanomo Bay in Cuba within a year. I hope all of the right-wing crazies read me right... I said within a year. This will end another very embarrasing chapter in American history. This goes right up there with the detention camps of the 1940's that housed Japanese Americans, as far as I'm concerned.

In addition to closing "Gitmo" (as we called it in the military), he has ordered the closing of other secret detention centers around the world that were supposedly run by the CIA. This is a measure of good faith to the rest of the world and a bold statement early on in the Obama Administration that tells the world that the United States will no longer detain and torture individuals either at home or abroad in violation of our own constitution.

One thing I learned when I was in the U.S. Air Force and actually got to live in places outside of the United States was that the average American citizen has no idea of some of the things done in their name by our officials and representatives abroad. This is why some Americans who travel abroad our stung by the negative reaction they get from foreigners.



Former President George W. Bush told us that the United States does not torture and most of us took him at his word. He told us that Iraq was a direct threat to the world with it's weapons of mass destruction and we took him at his word for that too. After the tragedy of 9-11, we gave him and his administration a blank check to thrash the constitution by grabbing people suspected of being terrorists or having ties to terrorists off the streets and having them detained at places like Gitmo without due process of law and without much proof that they were guilty of anything.

Now don't get me wrong, I know that some of these detainees are indeed avowed members of Al Queda but, many may be no more than illegal immigrants or loyal American citizens of Arab descent. This is why he is giving the officials a year to go case by case and decide who is a terrorist and who is not.

We then have the problem of what to do with these people after all the sorting out has been done. I for one do not feel comfortable just deporting the guilty back to their country of birth. This leaves them free to try and come back to America again and really reek some havock. (Let's face it... it's not hard to get into this country and everybody knows it.) If these people are, in fact, guilty of terrorist activity, tried, and convicted in a court of law, then they should be locked up in an American federal prison just like anybody else guilty of a crime would be.

Then, what about the innocent? The ones who are just in the country illegally or the ones you simply can't prove are responsible for any wrong doing? What happens to them? I suppose you deport some and release the rest back on the streets and take your chances. This is not a chance that I feel safe taking but, what is the alternative?

We have already gone down one wrong road for too long. Can we afford to continue making the same wrong headed mistakes? As long as we keep places like Gitmo open and other places like it around the world, we give the real terrorists propoganda and justification for further attacks. This measure of good faith from the Obama Administration sends a different kind of message to the rest of the world...

"We'll extend our hand if you'll unclench your fist!"