DONALD… DONALD….

I got sick of him long ago.   So, this blog won’t be very long don’t worry.

Tonight is the first Presidential Debate and everyone is talking about ‘which Donald Trump do you think will show up?’

Oh, I have no doubt which Donald Trump will show up… because I know it will be the Donald Trump that needs to show up.  Plain and simple.

Either the man is a total idiot … or a very masterful genius.   And I am beginning to believe he is both.  But I think it has come about by happenstance.  Or maybe I’m just listening to those talking heads too much on television to be able to tell the difference.  Because they all seem to be confused too by this whole political mess we have this presidential election period.

Lets face it, at his very best we have all come to realize that the man is definitely not smart.  He’s not even a good business man.   His history as a businessman speaks volumes to that point… in that every … and I do mean ‘every company the man, himself, has started has failed.’

The only business which has somehow managed to survive the raging waters of a fidgety Donald Trump, who apparently likes leaping into business trends he knows nothing about… the first sign of someone who knows nothing about business.   Because when you leap into venues … business or otherwise that you have no real working knowledge of … they will inevitably fail.

This is a well known and highly proven fact… which has been the undermining of many goodhearted and people believing they could ‘make it too’… because some new money making business trend was happening in the marketplace.   But the thing they had failed to factor in was… they had no expertise or real working knowledge in what it would take in terms of capital, outside already pre-established relationships with other sub-contractors, suppliers, material manufacturers, overhead expenditures etc. that it would take to make it.   And maybe like the restaurant business… that it would a few years to first establish their business and clientele before their began to make any real money or even show any level of a profit.

The only business that Donald Trump has managed to not sink is his father’s real estate business.   There must be some type of major reason for that… like some type of clause or ryder on dear ole dad’s will that put a board or some other force over ‘the Donald’ from having run that company into the ground too.

I thought that the President had to be men… or women… above reproach.   People who exhibited some level of having at lease a grain of honor…  a speckle of common sense… or some moral character above the average man or woman… people of GREAT dignity…  someone who possessed a HUGE AMOUNT of integrity.

How did this election fall so short?

Sure we may not all be happy about either or… but Hillary sure does beat Donald Trump any day… any year… any month… and any election.

Donald is so crazy… I am not even sure that the man is truly American himself.   Seriously.

He is so in love with Putin and dictatorships… and lets face it all
of his wives have not truly been American… including this last 1… who on top of it all … she can barely speak English.   A strip-tee artist???

She is the classical example of someone who has sold her soul to the devil.   And this would be come the First Lady of the United States?

And Donald Trump claims that America is disrespected now under Obama???

He would be the laughing stock of the world… and First Lady of every other country would find it hard just trying to hide all their smiles… behind such whoredom.    And if Donald Trump is marrying high… where is the ‘new low’ in America today?
Because this man is the pits.

I just hope all those people that he has robbed and all the sub-contractors that he dupped out of their contracts… got the job done and/or the materials … but never paid…  I truly hope that somehow
they all get their day in court … and see this man in jail where he belongs… and definitely not in the White House … not even on a visit.
What a shock that would be to the Donald… to be dragged off in the middle of the night by Russian guards laughing at his stupidity….

 

Oh, well…  So much for this because truthfully speaking the man has received too much media attention.   If anyone needed a total blackout it would be the Donald.   And that is all I am going to say on him… except how foolish and ignorant the sellout black folk who have rallied around him are.  And I mean a bunch of ignoramus if ever there any.

If it were left up to them we would all be back on master’s plantation… unable to read… picking cotton… and being sold upon auction blocks… just as they are currently being bought.  They have no clue that it takes a bunch of dummies to want to run behind a dummy, like Donald Trump… and proclaim him to be the god and savior of black folk… whom history has

proven he hates and thinks very lowly ofNot only are they confused… and lack understanding… who told them that they were smarter than you and me.  When we obviously can see way pass all the games that Donald Trump thinks he can play on folk.

I just thank God that all of us are not stupid… and just won’t fall for everyone and everything… for real.

One final note on Trump… how can anyone ever hope to ‘make America great’ …who never even believed in the trademark …‘made in America?’

Well, UPDATE:   TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2017…  Well, the guy won.   And he is going stark raving mad.  It has become quite clear to many that this man may truly not be dealing with a full stack of cards… and cards they would truly be.

What we thought was funny… now does not appear so.   In 8 days he has managed to cause so much havoc that there is lots of talk about the 25th Amendment an act which allows the president of the United States to be removed for disabilities… and/or impeachment.

There has been demonstration after demonstration against him.   And for a man who likes numbers… and is quick to say how he got the longest and loudest applause ‘ever’… it has got to be eating him up.

Well, God bless… I’m out.  Thanks for reading my blogs.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2016

 

Add a comment September 26, 2016

Rev. Bernice King to head SCLC…Haiti…

I have been so busy lately trying  to stay warm…that I really haven’t thought about much of  anything else.  But checking through my stats for this blog I did notice that a lot of  folk had come on my site looking for information on the Kings. 

So, thinking that maybe something new had come up with their legal battles…Bernice and Martin the 3rd against Dexter…I  decided to go up onto  the internet  to  find out if  there was  something new.  And to my surprise…I saw nothing new about their court battles…but that the  stories  were about  the  baby girl.   Dr. Martin L. King, Jr’s youngest child was now going to head up the organization which her father  had  not only  headed in the 60’s,  but was  also  one of  its  founding members… the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

It  has not been easy…and my guess is   Bernice would say that would be  an understatement.  What  with watching  their   mother battle  illness… then  her  passing… and then  just  about  on  the  heels  of   their  mother  passing…Yolanda died too… her only  sister  and the  oldest sibling.     And  on  top  of  all  of    that… Dexter  started  acting up  and  getting  crazy.   Which forced her and Martin the 3rd  to have to go into the courts  against  him…and  thereby  thus  bring  private family matters  came  out  into  the open… opening  them… a very  private  family… up  to  public scrutiny and commentary.   That had to be  hard  decision  to  make.

No,  it  could have been easy.  But  yet  she kept  on going…and doing.   And I have  no doubt  praying. 

http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/galleries/top-ten-celebrity-owned-hotels?ncid=AOLCOMMtravdynlprim0758-6&icid=main|search3|dl6|link1|http%3A%2F%2Ftravel.aol.com%2Ftravel-ideas%2Fgalleries%2Ftop-ten-celebrity-owned-hotels%3Fncid%3DAOLCOMMtravdynlprim0758-6

It  is  amazing. 

She was just a very young  child when her father was  so  brutally shot  down and  killed during the  summer of  1968.   The  summer  that saw so many riots  around the United States upon the announcement of  his  death.   A  man who had  stood for  non-voilence and peaceful  resistance…he  had  been  murdered.   

Bernice was  all of   5  years old  only  when it happened.  Hardly able  to  clearly understand… much  less  comprehend  truly what  it all meant…or how even her father’s dying was destined to change a world…and this country for ever.   But  I’m  sure  she  heard her mother crying  many a night  over it.

 Now,  today she is stepping  into  her father’s shoes.   At  age  37   Rev.  Bernice  A.  King, who holds both a   Divinity  degree  and  a  dregree in  law has become the first woman to ever hold the top post at  SCLC.  What a great way to honor the memory of  Dr. King as we all celebrate his birthday this coming  Monday. 

Though there has been much controversy among the remaining members of  Dr. King’s immediate family… his children… Martin the 3rd, Dexter and Bernice… this I am sure would make him smile.   They both would be.

Poised…confident… well spoken… and a member of  the New Birth Ministry under Bishop Eddie Long… as well as having been a law clerk  under Judge Hatchett… and of course having been under the mentorship  and leadership of  her  own mother,  Mrs. Coretta  Scott King… I see a new era  in black leadership rising in this country.   It  has been long over due…a new  guard is on the horizon.  And it  feels like a breath of  fresh air.

It  gives  me  great  pleasure to  write  this on  the  King family…  or  a  member  of  it.   And  I  look  forward  to  writing many more.

I had seen some of  the headlines…but  had just not taken the time  to read anything on it…mostly  because  it  just  kept  slipping  my  mind.    I would get busy  reading  or  doing something else...and  then…well, you know…   I  would  forget… that  is  until my son called me and began speaking to me about  it.   He told  me  that  an  estimated 500,000 people had been killed.  For such a small island  that has to be nearly a  quarter  of  Haiti’s population. 

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2010787604_haiti14.html

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/americas/HAITI-RECOVERY-81427942.html

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/special-reports/Haiti-Earthquake-81317947.html

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/Thousands-Feared-Dead-After-Haitian-Earthquake-81311282.html

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Untold-Numbers-Still-Trapped-in-Rubble-of-Worst-Quake-in-Haitian-History-81348092.html

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/americas/Scientists-Explain-Haiti-Earthquake-81356387.html

Many many  stories of   are  pouring out   of  Haiti  of untold  thousands upon thousands still being trapped.  The Richter Scale hit  7.0  with a series of  after shocks measuring at 5.9… with the International  Red Cross saying  that perhaps over  3 million people have been affected  by  the massive  earthquake.

We can all remember  still…I am sure… that massive mounting wave that rose up out in midst of  the Indian Ocean back in 2004…which hit 11 different countries with  so  much force that everything near the shorelines for 25 or so miles inland was wiped out into the sea… including families, businesses, homes, belongings etc… perhaps leaving  many of  them  feeling  the affects  probably still,  while  additionally  trying to recover  from it  mentally and physically after having  lived  through  such a  terrifying  and  destructive  thing.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1227_041226_tsunami.html

I guess before it  has all been said and done…we are bound to have much more devastation to come  in  our  lifetime…and  beyond if  there is a  beyond.   The forces of  nature  are reaping  havoc  upon  us  in  ways  we are  incapable  of  fighting.  And  Kartrina was just  another example  of  it.

It  can surely not be argued that we have not been one of  Mother Nature’s best friends.   And we are starting  to see… and  feel  the  affects of  it.

Or  you can look at  this way. 

Prophesy coming  to  pass. 

There is  no dispute that within  the text of  the Bible all these things… including wars   have been prohesied long before we got to this point , some more than 2,000 years ago.    When I think of  both  Haiti and  New Orleans…I  think of  2  places steeped in the  culture of  witch craft and voodoo.  When I  think  of  those  11  countries  hit by the Tsunami…I think of  child sex trades and exploitation. 

It is not a secret that many people get on airplanes flying out  from  this  country  to foreign shores,  to indugle in many  things  illegal here in America…such as having sex with children.  Though such laws  have  not stopped a lot  of  people from doing so… such as…Roman Polanski.  A  man who should have been locked away  years  ago…when  he confessed  to  having sex with a 13  year old girl.  Film director or not…the man should  have been locked away.  And the same  for  Woody Allen.

I once watched a  film produced by some independant filmmakers.  The  most  beautifully shot  film  visually  that  I  had  seen in a while.  I was very impressed by  it…visually.   The lighing…the colors…just everything about it.  But…  

It  was a movie  about  young  children…very young children…super  young children…some younger  than 4  who were put into the  sex for hire business.  Children standing in shop windows waiting on someone to walk  by  and pick  them out…like  they were buying a suit or a pair of  shoes.   And shop window after shop window with little  children standing in them…bunches of  them…as  if   they were  live  little manakins on display.

It  is  hard  to believe  that such places assist…much less  that  they  can  so freely  exploit  their children in such a way.  With families  making  decisions to give out  their own children for a few dollars claiming that  the  hardships  in  their countries left  them  no other choice. 

It  is not  hard to believe that God  would  destroy such places.

Most of  these countries trafficing children… or where such practices are openly allowed… are  3rd World Countries… such as Africa… Indonesia (which less than 2 years ago was hit by its own major and highly devasting earthquake)… China etc. 

Even in terms of  Haiti…besides the witch craft and  practices of  voodoo…it  is routine to see one tele-evangelist after another showing pictures of  children while pleading for financial support from viewers… and not only while in Haiti but other countries as well.  When I look at those pictures of  those little children  I feel sorry  for  them.  Because  I know that many times these children are not  only being  used as a means to pull upon people’s sympathy.  And  I  have no doubt that once  those camera  lights go off  and their little pictures are taken… most of children fall  prey to  sexual  abuse by the the very ones who claim they are their to  help them.

It  is  sad  all the way around.  It  is  sad…very.

We… I have no doubt  that  we cannot begin to imagine the vastness of  the devastation which has hit  Haiti.. .nor  its  awful  after  affects  now and  for years  to  come.      Not  to  mention  the danger  that many  Haiti’s  people have fallen into by criminals  and  others who seek  the  exploit  this  time and  Haiti political  problems.

Many American artists…and partically all Haitians living in this country still have   roots  in Haiti…by way of  love for  their  country and  family  members still there…such as  Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and others.   It is very  likely   that within the whole of  Haiti there  is  not one  family  whose  lives have not been touched by this earthquake…whose strong and very high magnitude  shook that  small French speaking  island  just  off   the  coast  of   Florida   this past  Tuesday…with such force that  it  almost virtuely destroyed Haiti’s capital city,  Port-au-Prince.

Those who can please let us all remember  them is our prays…and send support to  Haiti.

http://www.sphere.com/entertainment/article/tiger-woods-and-other-celebrities-consider-haiti-help/19317421

http://www.sphere.com/world/article/violence-increases-in-quake-ravaged-haiti/19320075?icid=main|hp-laptop|dl2|link1|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sphere.com%2Fworld%2Farticle%2Fviolence-increases-in-quake-ravaged-haiti%2F19320075

http://www.sphere.com/world/article/scene-at-hospital-in-haitis-capital-is-nightmarish/19320027?icid=main|hp-laptop|dl2|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sphere.com%2Fworld%2Farticle%2Fscene-at-hospital-in-haitis-capital-is-nightmarish%2F19320027

The images and stories flowing out of  Haiti since the earthquake are saddening.   Limited medical supplies and those who can care for them coupled with criminal elements…make it even harder upon those who somehow managed to survive…barely escaping with just the shirts upon their backs.  Little children left  orphaned… amputations…shortage of  water…and no place  to lay for the night or out of  the blistering sun during the day.   Missing persons…destroyed property…everything gone.   Encompassed by the smell of  death…while listening to the wailing crys…screams  and moans of  emotional and physical suffering all aound…while  wiping at  your own tears at the very same time.  How hard it must be to go through such devastation.

If  you would like to donate CLICK this LINK…http://cogic.net/cogiccms/default/

It  is a little after  4:30 in the morning and I stayed up all night doing this.  Well,  I didn’t  really get started until after 1.  And now  I  am  hungry…and need  I say it…have to go the bathroom.  

The bathroom is not going to hold out…but my stomach will have  to.  Because  as much as I hate  to say it…I desparately  need to shed some pounds.  My hair is falling out.   My nails are getting too long.   I think  my  teeth might  be  a touch too  yellow.   My toes are  freezing.   And…oh, I am a disaster.    I truely am.  

Will this weather ever break?

My  son  tells  me on  Friday…we are scheduled  to get into the 50’s.   Do  you think  it  might  be  a bit  too soon  for  me  to begin  singing  ‘Happy days are here again...?’   

Do  you  think?

Well,  I just signed up for  a  blogtalkradio slot.   This  should be fun. 

Perhaps since you have been reading these  blogs…you have often thought about what it would be like to talk to me personally.  Judging  by reading some of  the responses to my Juanita Bynum blog…and perhaps my blog  on Chastity Bono…some of  you may just be dying to get at me.  Well, soon  and  very soon…you may just get that chance.   Because  yes…your girl will soon be coming to you live, baby.   Bet you’ve been waiting  for that.

Well, have a beautiful day.    I hope you got a whole lot of  warmth wherever you are.  And please let us pray for all these people who are going through hard times right now.  There are so many people suffering from all type devastating thing…earthquakes…loosing homes…loosing their jobs…speaking of which.  I spent most of  day today observing an on-line class on how to make ice cream.  I actually have had the  idea  rolling  around  in my head for a couple  of  years  now.   But somehow I fell upon this  internet site…and the next thing  I know they were emailing me about a ‘free training session.’  

Did somebody say ‘free?’

Yes, I did.   And you know  I  took  advantage of  their offer. 

Today could not come fast enough.   Though I over slept and missed  the first hour and half.  I managed to  learn enough in  the  remainer  of  the session to more  than make up for it…and to let me know that my consideration of  the idea was not a bad one…not at all.    I tell you  this… in this time  of   unsurety  you really have to be looking at  your  future  options  too.  Look  into the future…. and see where you would like to be.   And what you will need to do to get  you there.

Now, start working towards that.

I am a believer that everybody  should consider going  into business for themself.  Or  perhaps  you have aspirations  of  being a writer.  Go for it.   Do it…but you can’t   if  you don’t  start somewhere.   And I am one of  those  people who strongly believes that you can’t wait to start something…or  hold back  talking about ‘waiting on  until you get the money to do it.’  

You will be waiting forever.  

I’ve got to wait… until  I  get  the  money…or  some  money  to  do  it…is  one  of  the biggest  excuses  for never  doing  anything.

Sometimes as the door closes  in  your  face…because you have lost  your  job…or can’t  find one…or  had  some  other set back… then it  just  might  be  because  it is  time  for you to become your own  boss… run your own company… do something that you really like  to do.

Think  outside of  the box… and don’t despair… there is something special waiting just around the corner for you.    And it is  that success  you have always been looking for… had hoped would come… that real career that you have been putting off. 

Just  do  it.    And  I would love hearing about  it.

I’ll give you  more  information about  when, how and where you can link up to me  regarding to my  blogradiotalk broadcasts… on both your  ipod and by listening in to me  right  here  over  the internet.   You know… try as best I can… I  just cannot seem to get  out of  radio…and  stay  out  of  it.  Oh…well..

 And I  almost  forgot  1  other very  important  thing about  my up and coming  blogtalkradio program…   You’ll able hear it  right here  too… right on this blog  page…as  I  plan to add a  link  to  the  program.  However, if   you listen via your ipod or directly over the net to the live  broadcast…you will be able to call in and talk with me over the  air.  It  should be  interesting.  I  look  forward to chatting with  you soon.  And yes…there will be guest…perhaps you would like to be one.  Send me a note via  my comment  box.

I just  love  these  pictures.   So, I may just leave them up all winter long.

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2010

 THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…CLICK this LINK to purchase my book.  You do not need a paypal account to purchase, and you can purchase using a debit card.  Thank you. 

4 comments January 14, 2010

I’m back… What? A soda what?

Well, I finally did it…and now at last I can get some real sleep.  And I have a lot of sleep to catch up on.  But I finally got the final edition of the book off and out…and I am so glad.

So, while I doze… enjoy Frankie…

Because I am really tired…haven’t gotten much sleep in the past 4 weeks because I have been burning that mid-night oil…day and night.  But it was worth it.  I have managed to produce a quality piece of work…through the grace and mercy of God.  And I am so happy about it.

But I have been thinking about that tax on soda…

I really have never heard anyone say that soda caused some kind of physical condition…or was hazardous to anyone’s health.  Anything can kill you if you indulge in it too much.  But are we going to go around and start taxing everything…because of some kind of mis-preceived notion that it causes people to get sick and adds millions  to Medicare or become some type of burden on medical plans across America?

Oh, course not.  Least ways…I hope not.

The whole thing sounds absolutely ridiculous. 

Besides, it’s not like soda isn’t already taxed with that 5 cent  charge on the cans and bottles.  Does alcohol have that?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124208505896608647.html

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22675.html

My goodness…some people just want to take all the pleasure out of life.  Like being able to go and buy a simple little soda…without it being a hardship.

Then I was thinking…how do you take over a company and not really manage it?

I understand that the government doesn’t want to really get into the automobile industry…nor do I  want the government in it.  But don’t tell me you are going to takeover something…and then tell me that you are turning it over to a bunch of guys who will call all the shots with little to no one watching over them.  Too much freedom…far too much.   I think that…if they were or are that good…then Obama should have sold them the company…or something…and just been done with it. 

The whole thing sounds a bit too Big Brother-ish to me.   You know as in George Orwell-ish.  I really don’t like seeing government overstepping it bounds…and I don’t care how much I like Obama.

After listening to him talk about how “he didn’t want to get into the auto industry business.”   Only made me think…

“Woe…pull back a little Obama.”

Because you see when you become the President of the United States…you ceased to be a little independent operator any more.  There is a much bigger picture.   There is no more “I’ or “Me”….it is all “We,” baby.

The President of the United States of America is not an “I”…but a “We.”   And she or him…must operate in that capacity at all times…and think like it.

You are not an “I”…Obama.   But a “We”…presenting every person in this country…as the head of our government.   So, you have no “I.”    It is either “Us,”  “Our” or “We.”  You are the Head of State…aren’t you?

Consider yourself…like the head of a major company.  Like the one you’re turning over to those guys…and then you may get the real picture about the ‘me…myself…and I.’    It no longer exists for you.  You’re…you’re the President.

So, kill the “I.”

Go back to what the founding fathers of this country intended…mixed with some Hamliton, Jackson and all those other schools of thought…as to who and how a President of this country should operate…and think.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/business/02assess.html

And forget about taxing soda.  Isn’t it enough that we have gas taxes in some states, taxes on clothes and property taxes…and on almost everything else.  Can we not start putting tax on food too?

My goodness…just buying groceries…if you go in for a few things…and I do mean a few things…cost you $100 or more.  A large pack of hamburger is $10…cereal is about $6…milk is $4 something…butter is $5…ice cream about $6…bread is $3…laundry detergent is $8…chicken wings is $8…a pack of hot dogs is $5+.   And now you want to tax soda.   Oh, give me a break.

What next…a tax on Kool-Aid?

And you know what I really can’t stand?

It’s a bunch of  health nuts.   Do-gooders who are going to force you into something…by making it a burden to you.

Obama drinks beer and smokes cigarettes.  And I am not out there running around trying to shove anything down his throat about the ills of those things.  And lets face it…the reports are out…all over the place about them…and been out about them.  

Cigarettes and beer…which is a form of alcohol…is harmful to you body…cells and everything else…including to people around you.  Can they say the same about soda?

So, what if it is a sugary drink.  I like sugary drinks.  I add sugar to my cup of tea…and many people add it to their coffee…lots of it.   I also love lemonde and ice tea.  Should I have to suffer a tax for loving these things?  In fact…I drink them alot…but do not touch alcohol.  Will the next conversation to hit the House floor on Capital Hill be about taxing all the things we can add sugar to?   Like cereal…desserts…Kool-Aid…lemonde…etc…   Maybe it will become against the law to add sugar to anything.

The whole discussion is crazy and highly illogical.  Ridiculous in fact.

Yes, I’m back…and with a vengeance.  And I have a lot of things I have been holding in…for such a time as this.

THE BISHOP’S WIFE…is coming….    Yes, my book is  coming…and I am very happy about that.   Though the road has been rocky.  I am really beginning to believe that this whole self-publishing thing is a racket.  And filled with racketteers.

But if you will excuse me…I really must get some sleep now.  I am sure I will have more to say on this tax subject…but not now.  I am just too tired.   This is the first night I have gotten into bed before 7 AM in weeks.

So, enjoy your day tomorrow…and we’ll be talking.  I’m sure.

THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…CLICK this LINK to purchase my book.  You do not need a paypal account to purchase, and you can purchase using a debit card.  Thank you. 

God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2009

Add a comment June 9, 2009

Serena Williams…. the top paid female athlete… Cha-Ching!

Serena is on her way…she made it through the women’s semi-finals.  If she wins it will Serena Williams 4th win in the land down-under.  She won her semi-final match 6-3, 6-4.    If she continues to win, Serena stands to become only the 2nd female athlete to have eclipsed over $22 million in prize money earnings. 

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/aus09/news/story?id=3870020

Even if Serena were to loose the Australian Open…she has already with her total winnings thus far…including what has won already in Aussie land this past week is $22 million.  And to think that in the first tournament she ever played…she received just a mere $250.00.  But I guess it was enough to continue to motivate both her and Venus and master their craft…and they did it without the help of any professional coaches…just some little known guy they called ‘daddy.’ 

Serena Williams of the United States celebrates after winning over Russia’s Elena

Dementieva during their Women’s singles 

championship in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aFSSc3E1T2KU&refer=latin_america

And I am so happy to see that Serena nor Venus take any junk from anyone trying to disrespect them.  You have to watch the embedded videos below to understand just what I mean.  It is refreshing.  And what makes it even more refreshing…is the fact that it was done without cursing and swearing…or getting mad…but showing that a good intellect is worth its weight in gold. 

Clearly the parents of Venus and Serena Williams, Richard and Oracene Williams,  should be highly applauded.  They have taught their daughters well.  And through it all they have remained close and protective of each other…though they have had their share of folks who have tried to tear them apart including agents, professional tennis coaches…and rival forces etc.  Hooray, for them.

http://www.nndb.com/people/205/000023136/

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/aus09/news/story?id=3868015

http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/index.html

http://www.tennis-x.com/story/2008-01-11/i.php

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/1006465.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&refer=home&sid=aQsUC0gi84i4

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jEDQ9pl_KRtKk617Xx2lIJL60Xpg

Well, it snowed again the night before last…then came the sleet and the rain.  So, it is pretty slippery.  But while shoveling I happened to meet a young man who was out trying to earn money by shoveling people’s sidewalks.  Mine was just about done when he came upon me but one of my neighbors…a new family…I had noticed that they really didn’t care to shovel.  So, I told the young man to try them.  And he did…and he got the job. 

You would have to have seen the job that he did.  It was very well done…and he was quite pleasant as occasionally I would speak to him.  When he finally got his money and turned to leave…I called out to him saying-

“I look forward to seeing your face upon the cover of Black Enterprise magazine.”

And to my surprise he was what he said back to me-

“And you will.  My name is Mingo Patterson.”

And I said to him-

“Undoubtably you possess the same spirit as Barack Obama.”

He kind of grinned at me…and slowly said-

“Yeah, I guess I do.”

“And that is why he is the success that he is today.  And I am sure you will be too,” I said to him as he dashed a way to search out another sidewalk to shovel.  And I am sure he will be…because he possessed all the right qualities.  Success takes hard work…and people who are willing to get up and go after it.  And those people do everything they do…well…and they do it with all diligence without respect of cost or pay.

There is nothing like money earned…and earned well.  It turns everyday folks into the future entreprenseurs…millionaires and executives of tomorrow.  It cannot be beat…nor substituted for…it really can’t.

There have been a lot of great opportunities for young people who wanted to…to get out and make some money this winter.  Almost everybody is tired of shoveling except me.   I love it.    And I just keep thinking…’how I am shoveling my parent’s property.’     That makes me feel real proud…to know that I am doing something for them in their absence.

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2009  

2 comments January 29, 2009

More Dexter King drama 5…Thanksgiving jetlag…

That Dexter King is a greedy little boy.

What I have never liked about some people…I really have a distaste for people…grown children who can’t make it through this world without living on others…namely their parents. 

They have been educated…sent off to school.  But still they can’t make it on their own.  Or maybe they don’t want to.  They want everything that the parent has got…and actively set out to get it.  And many times while the parent is yet alive.

They desire to live off their parents…be it on the memory of their parents…on their parents earnings…or financial resources…or businesses.  Whatever it is…and however it is.  They seek to do it.  If the parent has a business which the parent got started then the child decides they will take it over.  And they (if more than one child) set about removing the parent. 

That whole removing thang…is really the main problem.  Because if an aging parent is not careful the child or children will remove their name from off of their own bank accounts (the parent’s name from the parent’s bank account)…and off everything else if they can. 

And I am not crazy.  It is true. 

I have seen it first hand and have had documentation of it. 

Over time the chid takes over handling all the parent’s personal business…the putting in or pulling money out of the bank for the parent.  They start writing the checks drawn against the parent’s bank account…at first supposedly taking care of the parent’s bills for them.  Which at first all might seem helpful and quite loving and attentive of the child.  And it may even be very convenient for the parent.   But parents beware.

It is a set-up for disaster. 

It is the biggest mistake any parent can make.  Before they know it nothing is their’s anymore…everything has been changed.  And the child has taken over. 

The parent will be standing around wondering how did it all happen?

It hurts. 

Yeah…I imagine that it hurts really bad when you see the people that you breath life into…fed and clothed grow up to be your own worst enemy.  But it does happen.

It’s family matters. 

Sometimes it starts as the parent starts aging.  Sometimes it starts after one of the parents passes.  But it does happen.  And before long the parent will start fearing the child who now begins to terrorize them…and telling them that they aren’t dying quick enough.

It is sad.  And there is really no real way to protect against it.  It has to go to the nature of the child.  And oftentimes this nature is never revealed until it is too late.

Enter Dexter King.  There was a point where his mother, Coretta Scott King, had removed him from being the head of the Martin L. King, Jr. Non-violence Center.  Dexter at that point claimed that she had done so because “they had had differences in opionions.”  So, it would seem that his only two remaining siblings share those same differences now also.

The below articles only prove my point about ol’ Dexter boy.  CLICK on the LINKS BELOW to read.

What a shame.  Imagine how powerful he could be…if only he…and they could live up to the legacy.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/11/14/king_obama_images.html

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/10/30/king_siblings_book.html

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/18/king-siblings-open-about-rift/

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/05/16/0516king.html

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/shared/news/nation/stories/2006/01/MLK_CENTER_0117_COX.html

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/10/24/king_mlk_dispute.html

Fees sought for King images on Obama items

 T-shirts featuring President-elect Barack Obama and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. are shown for sale on an Atlanta street. The King family wants a share of proceeds from such items.

Who wouldn’t have expected black folks to create t-shirts and other merchandise with both Dr. Martin L. King, Jr and Barack Obama side by side. 

Are not they both icons in the black community?

Aren’t black folks equally as excited about Obama as they now celebrate Martin?

I can understand being ridgid about it…if say Nike was doing it.  But not just some brothers and sisters trying to spread the word and generate some bread (money to put food) on their kitchen tables.  I think Martin would be proud and properly smile about it. 

Imagine the long miles Martin L. King, Jr. walked.  The amount of churches he had to visit.  The number of preachers he had to try to placate just in order to get one little thing done. And to have it calumniate in a ‘Barack Obama.’ 

Oh, yeah…I know he would smile…and be proud to be on that t-shirt or that cap…or that carrying bag with his picture right up ther next to Obama’s picture. 

Baby…yeah….he smiling…

So, yeah…I think he would smile to know that some 40 years later…after his “I have a dream” speech that a tall tan black man would stand up in a square of Chicago and be accepting the nomination to be President of the United States.  In fact, he would not only be smiling…but poking out his chest…saying-

“Yes, I always knew it wasn’t going to be in vain.”

I know he would. 

I know that Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. be down right proud to be displayed on a t-shirt or on a baseball cap…or on a silk-screened carrying bay…his picture right there…right next to that of Barack.  And nobody can tell me differently…because I know Dr. King would be proud indeed.

As in the words of Langston Hughes…who wrote “A dream deferred.”  It ain’t deferred any more, baby.

And yeah…I said it. 

Dexter King is a very greedy little boy.   And I do mean ‘boy.’ 

Instead of trying to chase down folks and trying to get his share. He really should be out scouting down the best t-shirts and other merchandise and striking a deal for the copyrights.  Some of those t-shirts are fabulous.

Well, God bless.  Hope you had a great  Thanksgiving.

I am so tired I don’t know what to do.  I stayed up until 5 AM this morning working on a class presentation.  But I got it done.  Missed my 8 o’clock class though.  But the presentation went very well.  It was worth the lost of a little sleep. 

Now, I can close my eyes…without having to worry if I will get up on time.  My next class is not until 9:25 AM tomorrow morning.  And I’m going to get some much needed sleep now.

And needed it is. 

I made 10 apple pies this past holiday and boiled the sweet potatoes for the 14 pies that my son made and baked.  We had more than enough…and we are still enjoying them.  Plus everybody got to carry home at least one apple and one sweet potato each.  We have a very larged and highly blessed family.  All praises be to God most high.

…pass it on…’ www.bsmith101.wordpress.com

God bless…and thanks for reading ©2008

Add a comment December 1, 2008

Joe Lieberman a big joke… and turncoat

What a jackel Joe Lieberman is.

He is as bad as Clarence Thomas…can’t determine who he is or where he should be.

First he was Democratic…but kept voting and siding with Republicans for most of the debates voted on in the Senate during the Bush Administration.

Then Connecticut finally got tired of him…well the Democrats did and gave him the boot…by putting in Ned Lamont as their 2004 Connecticut Senate Candidate.

He lost the race against Ned Lamont during the Connecticut Primary…then he became an Independent.  And ended up winning the Connecticut Senate seat anyways…thanks to probably a lot of Republicans who liked what Lieberman was doing.

Why didn’t he just turn around and declare himself to be Republican…and call it day?

Oh, yes…didn’t want to give up becoming a Senate Chair…of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee…of which he was in line for.  With Lieberman at the head of Homeland Security this could account for why FEMA can’t get anything done right…and its total ‘no care’ attitude towards caring for and protecting Americans.   Poisonous…contaminated trailers…leaking tanks…you can read about them in my blogs on FEMA… www.bsmith101.wordpress.com

Recently Lieberman has been out campaigning with John McCain trying to aid him in winning the White House.  And there is also some talk about Lieberman again getting on a ticket as a VP…John McCain’s.

When challenged by the Democrats concerning his non-party activities, Lieberman donated $100,000.00 to help Senate Democrats Campaign Committee…after which they backed up off of him.

Guess money still talks…and particularly still very much so on Capitol Hill.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/category/joe-lieberman/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16530615/

Joseph Lieberman is clearly a man who has lost his way.

Too bad Ned Lamont didn’t win in the Connecticut Senate race…he clearly would have been a better candidate.  For one thing he would be busy at home in Connecticut sorting out the affairs of Connecticut instead of running around the country trying to promote Republicans and get John McCain elected President.

Well, hope you had a beautiful day.     

Lately, I’ve been a bit tired.  Had a long weekend this past week.  Was trying to get my business up off the ground…but it has been cold and wet.  So, I didn’t do much.

Now I am prepping everything…and this is a whole lot better.  I’m ahead of the game this weekend…and that is good.  So, I guess I will rest up in between my prepping…and hopefully will be well rested by this weekend.

Decided not to go to my friend’s funeral today.  And I must say that I feel a lot better for having made the decision not to go.  I would have only cried all the way there…and cried all the way back.  Woke up early thinking about it though.  But for me…not going to the funeral was the best thing for me.  I just feel so much better than I would have otherwise.

Maybe one day I might regret not having gone to her funeral…but I thank God that I was able to get into New York and be with her before she passed.  That meant more to me than being there today sitting in a church with a bunch of people who could never know the depths of what I felt for her and all that she had shared with me in wisdom and guidance.

Well, God bless… …and enjoy tomorrow.   www.bsmith101.wordpress.com …pass it on. ©2008

Add a comment August 15, 2008

WHAT? John Edwards too????

I had gone into a local Jamacian restaurant to get my son something to eat when I first heard the story.  I was shocked and cried out aloud-

“Oh, no!  Not John Edwards too?”

Not squeaky clean John Edwards…a man who could have told me anything and I would have believed it.  The man I would have perfered to run for President over John Kerry in 2004.  The man that I was holding out and hoping that Barack Obama would name as his Vice Presidential running mate.  The man that I watched stand along side his wife as she went through her bout with cancer.

Yes, that John Edwards…the Senator from North Carolina…who had thrown his hat into the Presidential ring again for the second time this year…only to be forced out by Obama and Hillary.  The one… and I don’t know about you…but I thought he could do no wrong.

And now I find out…him too.

Ex-New York Govenor Eliot Spitzer,  Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Chatholic Priests, Detroit’s Mayor…Kwame Kilpatrick,  Bill Cosby, Racist Senator Storm Thurmond who fathered a child with a young…very young black woman who was only 15 at the time, Ex-Louisiana Senator David Vitter with his DC madames,  Dr. Jay…Julius Erving, Rudy Giuliani, George Bush who had had 2 mistresses…one which accused him of rape who later mysteriously committed suicide, New Jersey’s Ex-Govenor Jim McGreevey, Larry Craig and that whole men’s bathroom foot thang…and the list goes on and on…

I guess he met this woman, Rielle Hunter, who was an actress turned a videographer who was hired to follow him around some time during his last run for the White House, where he ended up being John Kerry’s running mate.  During the time of this affair Edwards fathered a child with the woman.  And though there had been some talk about him having had an affair, Edwards continually lied and called the claims false…like a true politican. 

And I thought he was better than that.

CLICK ARTICLES BELOW for more on the story.

http://www.cnn.com/?refresh=1

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/08/edwards_admits_to_affair.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808/ap_on_el_pr/edwards_affair

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/08/allow_bret_easton_ellis_to_int.html

Men cheat on their wives with other women who can’t shake a stick to what they already have at home.

So, then why do they do it? 

The affair between Edwards and what’s her name…happened sometime, I guess, while he was running for President the first time. Though, however, that woman was brought onto his staff with a 6 figure salary, $100,000…money like that one hundred thousand dollars just to shoot behind the scene video footage of him?  Being able to command that type of salary might suggest that he knew her before she picked up the camera and began shooting.

Having that in his closet…one has to wonder what prompted Edwards to dare even think about running for the White House a second time…knowing that he had just fathered a child with some woman other than his wife.  And this mind you while pretending to be all supporting and caring of his ailing wife, Elizabeth…whom I have always thought seemed to be terribly nice…and a great mother with her children.

All to the discredit of John Edwards…and to the pain of his wife who was and is already suffering…still battling cancer…topped off with that of their own children who will also have to endure this scandal.

I would really have to believe that so much better looking woman have tried to enticed them other than just the ones these men have ultimately crawled into bed with…and I’m not talking about men like Larry Craig or Jim McGreevy because their stories are a whole other set of issues.

I have been in the presence of men who have discussed with me after their wives have died how they wished they had been better husbands…hadn’t cheated…etc…etc…

It is ashamed that she couldn’t hear that…I have thought when hearing this.  And I have no idea…as to why it is…men would share this with me.  But they have.

And I have known a different man…and I have shared some things about him…a bit about my time in Chicago…it was in my blog about Minnie Ripperton.

Dr. A. L. Reynolds, Jr. was a man who loved his wife.  I became his secretary…I don’t know how many years after her death…as I had never met her or even seen a picture of  her.  But one morning he can into the office and said to me-

“Today is my wife’s birthday.”

And I said back to him-

“I bet you couldn’t remember that when she was alive.”

I think back now…and realize that that was rather cruel of me.  But I was young…and I wasn’t trying to be rude.  It was the extent of my quick wit…I just didn’t have any…then or now.

But he loved his wife, Dr. Reynolds did.  Even though women would try to entice him…and even though she had already passed some years ago…he loved her.   Her only…and there could or would be no other.  As it tickled him…women trying to get his attention.   There was a little old church mother whom he had pointed out to me…telling me she was an admirer.  But he had lots of those…if you were the type of man he was…you would understand why.

And I admired him for that…because he felt that passionate about her…long after she was gone…and I am sure all the while he was married to her.

He oftentimes shared stories about her with me.  This I imagine kept her very much alive for him.

Yes, he was a man who had loved his wife greatly…and I imagine…she him…based upon his stories to me.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4424507

Here is a story that really makes you sick to your stomach.  CLICK BELOW to read it.  It is on the UN Peacekeepers…just in case you thought it was about something gory.  And to a degree it is.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/081zxelz.asp

It seems the world is going to the dogs. 

Is there no one who can be trusted?

It is a very sad commentary on just how far we have fallen…and are falling.

Kwame, the ex-Mayor of Detroit, and his girl…

 Well, I will be busy tomorrow…plan to open up my business.  Finally got everything I need but a few bags of ice.  Today I purchased the bread, charcoal, lighter fluid and a few other things.

I have to get up early as I plan to call into a local radio station and start to get the word out.  Then I am going to very quickly paint up my signs…which I should have done already.  But it has been very wet lately…a lot of rain.  Might even do that night…in fact I will.  And hopefully it will dry over night.

Got to make the barbeque sauce tonight too…planning on having very hot and a mild sauce.

I’ve got to unfreeze that meat too tonight.  I’m glad I’m thinking of all of this now.  And I need to freeze up some more ice.

I’ve got a lot to do.

Let me see…what else do I have to do.  Was going to do some baking.  Thought it might be nice to have something sweet on the table…but then I ran out of money.   Couldn’t get the eggs…but bought everything else…well, almost. 

Because I thought about making bread pudding…my father used to make the best.  And I have a taste for it…so, I guess I am really going to make it more for me than anyone else.  But you know…sometimes you just have taste for something. 

So, I bought everything but enough bread for which I could bake with.  I bought bread…but for the hundred of so sandwiches which I intend to sell.  But not enough to bake a couple of pans or even one pan of bread pudding.  And I can’t afford to mess with any of the bread I brought for the sandwiches…because the real money is in the sandwiches.

So, I’ll just have to put those things away until I can afford to buy some more bread and the eggs too…but I do have the raisins, sugar, milk etc…etc…

So, yes…tomorrow…tomorrow…here I come.       God bless… and enjoy your weekend. ©2008

Add a comment August 9, 2008

Cleopatra Jones, Yolanda King …and me

Since purchasing my first computer I have found that I actually watch little TV…actually I watch no TV at all now.  Not that I have ever been big on watching television in the first place…because I am always too busy.  But growing up it was one of my favorite things to do.  I sat in front of the television a lot watching ‘Gun Smoke’,  ‘Mission Impossible’,  ‘Secret Agent Man,’ ‘Julia,’  ‘Sanford and Son,’  etc…etc…the Saturday Afternoon Movies, the After School Movies, the Sunday Night Movies etc.  Those were the days that TV actually had something on it. And today with over 100 channels to choose from it is very much not the case.  Of all of those channels that you have to choose from you still can’t find anything good to watch…except maybe re-runs and old television shows…and network TV…which doesn’t offer very much any more either. 

So, then what are you wasting all your money on?

Which is why I have really never had cable.  If I bought cable I would have to sit in front of the television all of time just so I could feel I was getting my money’s worth.  As shameful as it may be, I am that kind of person.  I need to feel I’m getting my money’s worth.

While my son was going to school in North Carolina, I had gone down to visit him which is something I did usually once a month…just to double check that he was taking care of all of his bills.  As I had to get him an apartment since his campus didn’t have any dorms…which meant that he had for the first time in his life he had utility bills and rent to be paid among other things. 

So, I would go down to make sure that everything was being taken care of…which really is something  you should do when your children are just graduating from high school and going off on their own for the first time in their life…as was the case of my son.  Because for one thing…since they never had to pay for anything…particularly bills…they start off not being very good at tending to their priorities.  Which really was the same way we were growing up.

While down in North Carolina on this particular trip, my son took me to some buffet where you could eat all you could eat.  It was some place that he liked but I thought it was a bit high.  And if you know about buffets…for some reason or other after spending all that money you find out that you really aren’t very hungry.  Then there is this other thing too…for some reason these places all seem to have the very best bread on the planet.  So, you sit and sit…eating bread…and lots of it.  So, by the time it comes to the food you have no place to put it.

But this place was expensive…and I just was not going out like that.  I had spent all that money and I felt that I needed to at least eat my money’s worth.  If I had had a couple of plastic bags on me things might have been very different…I would have eased some food into the bags and taken it home…but I didn’t have any plastic bags or anything else.  So, I had to eat it.  I was determined to get my money’s worth.  And I did.

I became so filled…I was sick.  I tried drinking some water hoping that it would force the food down…but it only made it worst.  I had no room for nothing…and the little water I drank made me feel sicker.  I was filled from all the way where the stomach begins up into some place near my tongue at the back of my throat.

I told my son, “I think I’m going to be sick.  We need to leave.”

I was so stuff…I was miserble.  I wanted to do anything that would give me relief…but nothing was working.  I was doubled over and definitely not feeling well.  And the ride in the car back to my son’s apartment only seemed to make me feel worst…and I felt like I was now getting nauseated. 

I was terribly miserable that day.  And of course…I learned my lesson in a very big way.  I don’t care how much it costs…I am not going to try and kill myself eating anything.  It is one of the worst feelings.

I am not a big eater.  My problem is and has always been…that I eat at the wrong times…usually right about before going to bed.  During the course of my life my  schedule has always been too busy for me to want to break it up going to lunch.

When you’re in LA working on a project or outside of LA working on a project (film or pushing out a script)…all the vendors and movie studio people will call you (if they know you are working on something) saying-

“Lets do lunch.”

They do this because everyone wants to be a part of your project.  They either want you to spend money with them…or as in the case of the studios and acquisition people…they want “first look”…meaning they want to see your movie first…before anybody else…in case it is really worth buying.

But who has time when they are trying to complete a film project…or get it up off the ground…to be sitting around and having lunch with a bunch of people who really want to take from you.  That’s LA, baby.

Most of my life I have been involved in the creative arts particularly when I started editing.  I would go into a editing session early in the morning and literally leave out when they kicked me out sometime later that night when the facility would be closing. 

During my editiing sessions which were from Monday thru Saturday…I never got up to go to the bathroom or eat anything.  Because once you are involved in the creative process of editing you never want to break up your momentum…(really that goes for anything that takes a lot on concentration)..and you just never seem to have enough time as time always seems to fly by so quickly.  So, you never want to waste one moment of time by getting up to do anything…and you don’t.

But having this conversation with my friend, an elderly woman from our church…the one whom I informed you in my blog entitled ‘Losing a friend…’ where I state that we believe she is in the process of passing…she informed that I had to change my eating habits or otherwise I would ruin my stomach.  There is nothing like wisdom…hearing that made me immediately consider my eating habits and make an adjustment in them. 

I try now not to eat anything after 7 PM…whereas before I only ate one time a day and it was usually after 11 PM…just before I would crawl into bed…to get up and go back to editing, or writing, or to the radio station, or film classes or whatever it was I was doing the very next day until 11 PM the next night.

The one thing about me…whatever I am doing I become grossly involved in it. I sank all of my energy into what I am immediately involved in.  I have been told I have tunnel vision…meaning when I am involved in whatever I am involved in or doing something…it consumes me and all of my attention.

This was never more apparent than when I started my advertising business, Queen Bee Multi-Media Advertising Agency and Consulting, Inc..  It is so funny…because I would go to bed and iterally dream up ad campaigns for clients…really.  And amazingly could remember them that morning upon awakening.  I was so engrossed with creating work…creating whole advertising campaigns for my many clients…that I eat, drank, slept and dreamed the thang.  I loved it…and still do.  There is something about the creative process that is highly intriguing to me.

I spent a lot of time developing concepts, sitting with artists and discussing client ad campaigns, and planning new stragies, figuring out rates, where I wanted commericals slotted, which publications we were going to buy etc…  But every moment was worth it…and New York provided with an wide open playing field.  Bud I just loved the work…and besides all the projects represented a part of me.  They were me. 

I love the creative process…seeing a beginning and an end of a thing.  Something that starts from nothing…an idea then blossoms into radio spots (commercials), magazine and newspaper copy, booklets, journals, posters, sold out venues, concerts, plays, screenplays, radio dramas, television programs, radio programs, and other various types of productions, film stuff…etc..etc…  It is…exciting…just seeing the end product, figures, responses etc…   Hearing what the copy sounds like, or reads like etc…amazing.

Everything I have ever done…I have to perfect it.  I have to get to be the best at it…which to me means putting in the time required to make that happened.  And that is just what I do…I live, sleep and eat it…until I perfect it. And I constantly keep challenging myself…by taking whatever it is that I am doing…to the highest levels of mastery.

When I learned video editing…and I am proficient in the use of all 3 of the top professional softwares…Advid, Premerier and Final Cut…but when I learned it I nearly slept at the editing facilities where I was working.  After a time people would walk by and begin asking me-

“Ooooh, how did you do that?”

Then they started saying-

“When I shoot my footage I want you to edit for me.”

My belief is…if you are going to do…then perfect it.  Become proficient in everything you do and take pride in your work.  And always work towards excellence.

Just a quick story.

Once I was a manager…one of 8 at this particular place where I was working.  I shared with you earlier in another blog of mine how one day while in downtown Brooklyn, I ran into one of our employees whom I hadn’t seen in while…who hugged me and I said-

“I thought you didn’t like me.”

And she said-

“Yes, but you were fair.”

You can read that blog somewhere amidst my now many blogs…right here @ www.bsmith101.wordpress.com   …pass it on.

At any rate…When you have so many managers in a small high paced space…the atmosphere becomes very competitve. 

Since I am a person who works towards excellence in everything I do…so, on this job I was not very well liked.  Because my way of working really meant that all the other managers would have to step up in order to contend with my overall job proformance.  I, of course, never realized that…because I had never encounted that type of thinking before.  And since I was the new kid on the block…meaning I was new on this job compared to them…they weren’t having it.  They liked things just as they had been…not that I was trying to change anything.   I…well, I just worked differently from them.  And somehow they felt threaten by that.

At first I thought it was because I had the highest level of education among them…but over time I came to find out it was that too,  but more so…that they just didn’t like me because I was me…a person who sought to do her job ‘well.’

I was not trying to show anybody up…nor was I trying to impress anyone.  But it was just how I worked.  I worked towards excellence.  It is the only way I know how to work…even on my own projects.  I commit myself.

On this job I was the one who hired all the new employees.  To do this properly sometimes (actually on almost 1 day of all of my 2 days off I would go in to inview folk)…as I would usually have to hire as many as 30 to 40 people at a time to keep up with the company quota for our location.  So, to do this I usually went into work on one of my days off.  As I not only had to hire them but I would also have to train them, issue them their uniforms and in many cases have them ready to hit the floor the next day.  I did not mind using one of my days off to do this as I felt it was something I had to do in order to keep up with the company requirements in term of staffing.  But the other managers…looked upon me as an over achiever.  And they did everything they could to sabotage me…including forging my name to company documents. 

The whole affair was quite disconcerting to me.  I had never in my life been anywhere where people didn’t like me.  But I did my job any how…and I continued to do it the only way I knew how…with excellence.  And in the end I won. 

At some point I am sure I will share that whole story.  But God has been exceedingly good to me.  He took me out of that situation…but not before making the company pay me.  And He made them pay me well.  From August of 2000 that company has been paying me…and I have not had to work one day since.

Through all the problems on that job, all the lies, deceits and falsehoods…I continued to be me.  I continued to be the worker I had always been…someone who goes in to her job to get it done…and to do it to her best ability.

My bantra is…do it well.  Don’t do it good…but do it well…to its highest level…the best that you can do it.

If it is anything worth doing…and you should only be doing things worth doing…then why not do it well?

As stated earlier I am not much of a television watcher…so therefore I was surprised when somewhere over the internet I ran across the fact that  actress Tamara Dobson had died in October 2006.  She was absolutely beautiful and I had thought that I had heard she had gotten into ministry.  But during the last 2 years of her life she was in a nursing home suffering from MS, Mulitple Sclerosis.

That was very hard to read considering how tall she was, 6’2″, and knowing the debilitating affects of MS…having lost a good friend to it.

My friend had just completed college…and a group of us were in Jersey for a wedding of another college friend when someone said to me-

“When was the last time you’ve seen___.  I think you need to go see her.  I hear she’s drinking or something.  They said that she was pretty tore up when they saw her.”

For the whole wedding that stayed on my mind.

I loved my friend.  She had been the very first person in my class whom I had met on the campus…we met my first day on campus and we became very close friends.  When we started hanging out…she took me to this club in Connecticut called “Mr. Peas.”   That place was fabulous…black lights, bubble machine and the best music.  I was, of course, a wall flower…and I had never been in any club or disco anything until my friend brought me to Mr Peas.  And I was quite a wall flower…but that was okay…I didn’t mind it.  I loved the place…I found the disco thang exciting…but my friend…well, she was beautiful…so, she was always on the dance floor.   We always had fun…and I loved it at Mr. Peas.  Neither of us were drinkers so we didn’t drink at all.   It was a lot of clean fun.  

I remember once how my friend…how she had bought us these matching glittering tops to wear to Mr Peas.  It was fantastic.  It was like we were sisters or something.  She was the best…my friend.  I would have never have thought to buy her anything…but the sheer thought that she did in regards to me meant so much to me.

She was a lot of fun…but after graduating from college, I later found out following the conversation at the wedding, that she started having problems holding onto things.  Pencils and pens would just fall from her hands…and gradually the problems continued to grow.

After that wedding I sought my good friend out…whom I had not seen in a while.  When I visited her…I cried.  As I have already stated in another blog of mines…I am not the best person to go and see anyone who is sick…because I become too emotional.  I just cried.

She did not look anywhere close to the person whom I had known.  She was confined to a wheelchair now and didn’t have the strength in her legs to keep her from falling much less walk.  Her eyes were going in 2 different directions. 

I could do nothing but cry. 

But she was strong…and kept trying to console me.   I could still understand her somewhat…as her speech was a bit slurred…but later on I could not.  And even then she was trying to console me as best she could.  Imagine…her trying to console me…and she was the one who was dying from that disease.  That was the kind of person she was…and had always been.  She was beautiful.  And I am happy to have been graced by God to have known her as ‘my friend.’

They say that MS is not hereditary…but not only had my friend had it, but come to find out her sister also suffered from it and has since passed too only a few years ago…and most recently I have found out that my friend’s daughter, her only child, now has MS also.

When I think of them, my friend, her sister and her daughter…whom I keep continuously in my prayers…I think of the electric reactors I saw by her apartment when I went to visit her on that first time following the wedding conversation.  For some reason when I looked over and saw them across the street from her house…I don’t know what I thought really…but for some reason those things stayed in my spirit.  And now as we become more informed…we have to stay away from areas that have large energy sources.  They just look unhealthy…and they are.

There is just no way that this stuff cannot affect you…if you live somewhere near it.  All this energy is going through your body and is being absorbed into your body.  That being the case it stands to reason that sooner or later it is going to affect you healthwise. 

And most of the time these things are located where the poor people live…electrical receptors or contaminated waste dumps…the folks whose lives are put mostly into jeopardy by such installations are poor.

When I used to walk around with all the video equipment, cameras and things…as I would walk pass the television at home it would mess with the reception…just because I had passed it.  I knew from that that all the equipment I was operating and sitting around in the televison studios and editing suites for all those prolonged hours really could become potenially hazardous to me. 

My body had soaked up some of that energy…enough to radiate off of me and distrub the television signal whenever I neared the television.  I didn’t think about that at the time…but I do now.  I recognized it…and what was happening but it had never dawn on me what overall effect it could have upon me physically or mentally.

It is energy and your mind is made of electronic impulses sending signals to various areas of your brain which enable you to speak, walk, talk etc…etc.  Inducing other electric signals into your system could technically cause it have some type harm or malfunction…or interruption.  Which in case if you haven’t been listening or reading over the internet…they are saying that your cell phone could be hazardous to your health…for the exact reasons I have just laid out. 

There are all kinds of nervous disorders…and some of it can be attributed to the meats and other things we eat…some to where we live and what we live near…some to (hold on to your seats) the microwave or your cell phone etc.  I didn’t think that you would want to hear that.  Not about your microwave…and cell phone too.

They are saying that about the cell phone now…but I do believe that in a few years we will hear how the microwave causes health problems too…because that process is just not natural.  Think about it…microwaving causes the molecules to speed up and rub against one another at such a rate that it generates heat causing that generated heat to cook or warm up your food (depending upon how you use your microwave).  I use microwaves very little…because I just don’t trust them…they have a tendency to change the texture of the food and alter its taste…and I just feel that that is not only un-natural but also will prove to be quite unhealthy.

When I think of MS…I always think of my friend…and I also think of  Congress Woman, Barbara Jordan, who was quite an eloquent speaker, being highly gifted in oration and as well as well educated.  It was during one of her speeches that I first heard the word ‘xenophobia’…but she also early in her life had to battle the crippling affects of Multiple Sclerosis.

Who gets MS…women mostly between the ages of 20 to 40.

Symtoms of MS…blurred vision, eye pain, possible double vision, lack of coordination, weakness of muscles, partial or mild paralysis, slurred speech, involuntary contraction of muscles (jerkiness), partial numbness, pain without apparent cause etc…

Now, that I have given you these symtoms please don’t go around trying to self-diagnose yourself.  That would be a foolish thing to do.  Sometimes we can work ourselves into a state just believing we have something…when we don’t.

If you care to read more on Multiple Sclerosis please CLICK on the LINKS below.

http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/mssymptoms.html

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/multiple_sclerosis/detail_multiple_sclerosis.htm

Well, today I finally opened up some mail I had put off opening for a couple of weeks now.  Sometimes I just don’t want to read anything that I don’t think is going to be good news. 

Well, I finally read a letter that came to me fromt the North Carolina Court of Appeals.  I thought it was a letter informing me that the court was rejecting our appeal…but it was not.  But the letter only gave me 10 days to respond…and I had sat on it for 2 weeks before opening it…(you do the math). 

I was late. 

Yes, I was.  And very late…which meant I had to really kick it into gear and get going on it.

So, I immediately called the court trying to get an extension of which I was given 7 days…this meant I had to interrupt my vacation today. 

It is summer and I am on vacation.  I don’t even leave the house unless I have to.  After all, I spent all of last semester, Spring Semester, carrying 21 credits of school courses…dealing with foreclosures, courts, got arrested and wrote a book…all of which you can read about in some of my other blogs.  So, clearly I need a break.  And if I say so myself…I am definitely entitled to one.  So, I was taking it…but now today…

So, today I had to interrupt my vacation and leave out of the house…because it was paramount that I get that Appeals Court information to Charlotte and then on Raliegh, North Carolina.  And I had to do it today…via express mail.  Because I had no intentions of missing my 7 day deadline…not if I could help it…now the court…well…the judge has to sign it, it has to be entered into the record, then sent to Raliegh…I’m praying on it because that means that there are whole a lot of other people involved and they may not have my resolve in handling this matter.   But I did what I had to do…I got out and got it do done.

Now, I have to follow up with Charlotte to make sure my package made to that court and that they get what I need done and out to the court in Raliegh hopefully all within the same day.

In a prior blog I told you how the car I had purchased so my son could get around while in school down in North Carolina…how that vehicle had gotten hit and was virtually totalled  in that accident…which caused us to have to file suit against Allstate Insurance Company and the car dealership, Parks Chevrolet, who was suppose to do the repairs.

In that blog about the trial I informed you how when we finally got around having our court date…the actual trial…how the other side tried to steal our case from us…you have really got to read that blog.   Which is how we were forced to appeal the case by taking it into the Court of Appeals to have our dismissal overturned.

My son tells me…that I don’t do anything but sue people.

But you know what?

Some people need to be sued.

Allstate and Parks Chevorlet needed to be sued…if for no other reason than they knowingly endangered the life of my son.  Of which I just could not let that go.

You can read more on my trials and tribulations with Allstate and Parks Chevorlet in my blog entitled ‘Tired…’   And also please keep in mind to share this blog address with your friends, neighbors, co-workers…just everybody…. www.bsmith101.wordpress.com    pass it on….

You do have to pick your fights…there will be some you fight and some you just have to pray over (and I guess that really goes for all of them).  There will be some that you just want it on the record but know that you won’t win (don’t go into any case that you know you won’t win with a lawyer)…but your putting on the record (because all court cases unless they are sealed by the judge are public record).  

However, since I handle all of my own legal affairs…I do not have to worry about lawyer fees and things like that.  If you can’t handle it yourself…and most people can’t…and I am not great at it either (because they try to make it very hard on you so that they won’t have a bunch on non-lawyers handling their own cases running all over the court…and they will do nothing to help you).  For the amount of time and effort you would have to put going to a law library and researching whatever information you need to know to handle your case as properly as you can…takes up an awful lot of time and diligence. 

But if you can do it and know that you might not win…because believe this too…nothing beats a failure but a try…you may win…if you back up whatever you want to sue over…if you have concrete evidence…but believe me that putting it on the record goes a longs way and can be a powerful weapon.  It may not be all that beneficial to you if you decide it is a battle you have to take on but may lose.  Doing so may make you feel a little better over the situation…but one thing is for sure…you are exposing someone or a company for what they are and that could prove to be very helpful to someone else.

Most recently I had to file something in small claims also.

After having all those problems with Allstate and car I bought for him to take to school down in North Carolina…my son finally bought himself a new car.  But not having any credit meant getting one of those ‘no credit or bad credit’ deals.  Which when you get it…you are just happy for the transportation and that you finally got something that you needed.

But with these people who financed this SUV for my son…they would never credit us properly.  My son would always pay more than what his monthy amount was for…and usually before its due date.  But the company would always call and say-

“Well, you’re 30 days late.”

Or they would say, “You are 61 days late.”

How could this be when he had just finished making a payment…and it was before the due date…and far more than required?

It was by continuously rigging their books to seem that what they were saying was true in order to make it appear that we were always behind in order for them ‘the company’…United Consumer Finance…to pad their pockets.  Which is illegal and considered by law an ‘unfair trade practice.’

My son was trying to build his credit so that he would not have the problem a credit problem the next time he wanted to buy something or another car.  

But these ‘bad credit/no credit’ deals are not as good as they seem.  Going into a deal with them and getting a vehicled financed by these kind of people who prey upon the needy…may just work against you rather than work to your benefit.

The company, United Consumer Finance, never credited my son’s account with any of extra money he was paying against his car loan.  Nor did when he paid off his car loan…which he paid it off in advance of its due date by several months…but the payoff amount was no lower than had he made all the payments through to the duration of the loan.  And then during the course of time my son had had the loan…each month they charged him late charges though he was overpaying his monthly payment and was usually sending in the payments ahead of their payment date. There was not one month that a late fee had not been applied to my son’s account.

And on top of all of that…they ruin my son’s credit too.

I think this company, United Consumer Finance, deserves to be sued. 

Don’t you?   

So, I filed the papers on them.  Later this month we will meet them in court.  I will keep you posted on the outcome.

Smile…and have a beautiful day.

Oh, yes…not only had I not known that Tamara Dobson, Cleopatra Jones, had died…but I was never aware that Yolanda King had also passed.  I was shocked in fact to read that story.  To have lost her so close on the heels of losing their mother, I know had be hard on the entire King family.  Be encouraged.

I hear the thunder outside.  So, I guess we are in for a rainy day. God bless… ©2008

Add a comment July 31, 2008

Doing for ourselves… thinking about…

Finally, went upstairs to do something I have been putting off.  

Well…I wasn’t really putting it off…because I really wanted it done.  I just didn’t want to be the one to have to go up there and do it.

For every woman considering getting rid of her husband.  Keep him if for nothing else  or for no other reason…but to go upstairs and get rid of the raccoons which have invaded your attic.

That is my dilema.  A family of raccoons have taken over my parent’s attic.

A few weeks ago, I went to Lowels and bought a hammer…I know, I said daddy had all of these tools…but I don’t know where to find them.  They’re downstairs in his workshop somewhere. Which when daddy was alive he kept well organized…but having been deceased for a couple of years now…his tools have all been gone through…and nothing is as daddy had had it down in his workshop or anywhere else.   

Which is, of course, my problem.  The house is in vast dis-repair.

But from the attic the raccoons can have their run of the whole house pretty much.  They can run from the attic straight down into the basement.

Since coming home from Detroit, I have been kleenly aware that a raccoon was in the house.  As  I opened the back door and stepped into the hallway to gain access to the downstairs apartment…I could hear it upstairs in the hall…eating something and it sounded like sharpening something. 

And I knew what I was listening to…because I had encountered a raccoon earlier a few months ago in the house.  It had gotten into the kitchen…but my niece’s cat soon resolved that issue by chasing it out into the hallway and up the stairs. 

I had initially thought that that raccoon had gotten in through a basement window or something.  So, we would leave open the back hallway door with the hope that it would exit the house.  Which I though it had…until I got in from Detroit.  But I was totally unaware that we had a whole raccoon problem in our house until our neighbors later shared with me.

After getting back from Detroit…then came the neighbors…telling me that they had been watching these raccoons night after night crawling into our attic through the roof.  And not only that…but they told me that their was a family of them up there in our attic.  And at least one of them was larger than a cat.

I could only wonder why they hadn’t bothered to tell me this before. 

So, of course, I would want to secure upstairs to at least keep the raccoons from coming downstairs and prohibiting me from accessing the basement…you know the washer machine…and for the oddest reason we now have started to have problems with the electric…the refrigerator and stove keep going out.  And since everything else is on…I usually don’t realize the problem until some while later.  This means…I have to go down into the basement and hit the circuit breakers…something I just found out about…thank God for men who know something.

The first time the problem happened I was sitting at my computer…like now…and there was some type of electrical surge.  It didn’t bother my computer though but I did recognize that something had happened…but everything as far as I could see at that time was alright. 

Much later…hours later…no, more like some time later…like the next day…that’s when I came to realize that the refrigerator wasn’t working.  This I found out after finally reaching into it to get myself something to drink…and since no one else would be going into the refrigerator but me as I am currently the only here…so, there was no way for me to discover the problem until I finally opened the refrigerator and found out that my water wasn’t cold.

My mind went to calling an electrican…in fact I tried but the guy who had given me a card…well, his phone was not in service.  Which was kindda alright because I was wondering…”how am I going to afford an electrican?”  But when you have to do something…you have to do it…and that is why I had decided to called the electrican in the first place.  It was a problem that had to be fixed.

I’m finding that with property…there is always something.

The only something I used to have to worry about when I had my apartments were the landlords.  And oh…yeah, the utility bills.  But not now.  I’ve got to worry about the roof, the taxes, the mortgages, the yard, the trash, the water bill etc…etc…etc…   A house is no joke.  But at the end of the day…you’re paying for something that is yours.  And no matter how you chop it…it just feels a lot better than paying on something that belongs to somebody else…and that you will never own not a even a piece of.

Shortly after being told the electrican’s phone had been disconnected, I got a call from the guy who I bought my bought my grill from…you know the grill I intend to go into business with just as soon as I can get enough money to buy some food to put on it.  Well, after telling him my delima…he calmly told me that the refrigerator and stove are both on 2 separate lines because they use so much electricity…and that I probably needed to go down into the basement to throw the circuit breakers to get them back on.

And it was just as he said.

I have been home in my parents house trying to straighten out our estate matters since 2003, and I can’t remember there being this kind of problem with our electricity.  Because since that intial time the electricity on the stove and refrigerator has gone out 3 or 4 times in the course of 2 weeks.  Which signals to me…that I still need to call an electricity because something must be wrong.

But as I had started buying meats and things and stocking them in the refrigerator and freezer…I was forced into a position of having to go downstairs into the basement.

Which means razor sharp teeth or not…I was going to have to deal with my raccoon problem myself.

I had actually been waiting on a man to come by…any man…so I could send them or him to block the attic door and secure it so that the raccoon could not come downstairs.  But to no avail…no man.  Not even one of my brothers… 

I thought about calling the handy man whom I hired occasionally to do odd jobs around the house…but I always have to pay him.  And I have no money…it is all invested in my up and coming business.  So, I couldn’t call him…besides still I owe him $10.00 anyways.

So, what is a girl to do?

Well, I wasn’t going to let over $150.00 in meats go down the drain.  Are you crazy?

No, it meant I…I had to face my raccoon problem alone.  I would have to go out on the front porch get the wood I had cut to size from Lowels for the purpose of blocking the attic door…the pad lock that I bought for the purpose of securing the chain that holds the attic door close…and my brand new hammer…well, you know…to bang with.  We were all going to have to go upstairs today…and now.  Because I was not going to let my meat spoil.  No, way.

So, I did what I had to do.  I put on some thick jogging pants, an old pair of thick sneakers…got one of the fireplace pokers…stuck my hammer into the side of my jogging pants and went up stairs…me and my neice’s cat.  I was prepared to do battle.

It was going to be either those raccoons…or me and my meats.  And I had decided it was going to be me and my meats.  The raccoons would have to be block off.

It took me a while to get up those few stairs…I was exercising caution.  Nothing like a little caution…but I wasn’t being afraid.

By the time I was banging those boards into place and securing that pad lock onto the chain…I was singing as loud as I could-

“Thank you, Jesus…for giving me the victory.”

Next I had to go down into the basement.  But I wasn’t sure if a raccoon or 2 wasn’t down there.  But I didn’t have anybody I could deploy on the job…other than me and the cat.  Though I thought about calling my son.  But if anybody had to get attack by the racoon…I rather that it was me and not my son.  So, I didn’t call him.

So, it was me and my niece’s cat…again.   Thank God for the cat…she is no joke.  My kind of girl.  We went downstairs and did what we girls had to do…we hit the circuit breaker.

And there was no raccoon to be seen.

But I think I need to get married…because this ‘doing it for ourselves’ stuff is for the birds…and it is definitely just not making it…least ways not for me.  I gave up manual labor a long time ago.  And I have no intentions of being drafted back into it…and particularly if it includes varmints!

And I don’t want to chase any racoons!

Hope your day wasn’t quite as interesting. 

After all of that I had to shower…can’t stand to be dirty.  Just thankful I finally boarded up that attic door.  But I will have to go back up there because my pad lock was a little too big for the chain.  So, I ended up tying the chain and securing the pad lock over the knot to keep it from moving.  But I definitely need to buy a smaller lock…just so I am sure that door is secure until I can afford to have the racoons chased out and the roof of my parent’s house totally fixed.

Well, God bless…

I am putting the finishing touches on my book, “THE BISHOP’S WIFE”.  I couldn’t afford to get a copy editor so I had to go back through it myself and try to catch all the errors.  And if you have read these blogs…well, you know I don’t always catch everything.  But I try.  

I can’t stand to read something that is littered with type-pos or other errors.  It is so distracting…and then I used to teach English…well, worked as Sub teaching English and Math…though I did end up becoming a regular teacher too.  I was an Art teacher in one of our local High Schools. 

I am so picky about English though.  There are so many things I just can’t stand.

I can’t stand when someone is talking and they say ‘ta’ instead of ‘to.’   ‘Ta’ drives me crazy.

And I can’t stand the ‘is’ and ‘are’ thing either…I don’t know what is the problem that people can’t get it right.  And it wasn’t such a problem before…but language…proper language is really going to the dogs these days.

I finished the “THE BISHOP’S WIFE” back in March, but because of all the problems with the printer, Xulon Printing, it hasn’t been printed yet.  But they offered me a deal, and if you want to know the deal you can email me via the comments section and I will tell you….but they offered me this deal…so, based upon that I decided to go forward with them.

But remember what I said about my book, “THE BISHOP’S WIFE,” when it finally comes out I will let you know where to buy it…which actually I can tell you that now.  It will be available via, of course, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, via my website and through Xulon.  But I will keep you posted as to when you can buy it.

But when writing anything you really have to put it away for awhile before you can really catch all the errors…or most of them.  I am continuously finding errors in these blogs…which is why I go back and periodically re-read them.  Without a fresh pair of eyes when going over text for errors you will just keep seeing what you think you typed or be reading it as it should be…not as it is. 

So, I have kind of been redoing my text…and actually I am glad I have had this chance.  Because it was really loaded with all kinds of errors…as most of time when I was working on the book…creating the story…I was working until 3 or 5 o’clock in the morning then leaving out to go directly to school as I was carrying a full credit load of classes (21 credits to be exact)…meaning I was extremely sleepy and quite tired during the whole time I was creating “THE BISHOP’S WIFE.”  

But I had to keep pushing myself…and a lot of the time I was so tired literally I could barely see.  But I would be trying to plug along anyhow…with one eye open and one eye closed…because I knew I had to get it done.  So, I had to force myself to complete “THE BISHOP’S WIFE” even if I was tired…and even if I could hardly see…and even if it meant walking into class having not gotten any sleep at all.   I had to do it…and that’s what I did.  I forced myself to complete the story…to finish the book…and I did.  I got it done.

I rarely write narratives…fictional books or short stories.  Because for the most part I spend my time writing screenplays or plays which are the 2 basic areas of writing that I have always been the most interested in until recently. 

I say until recently because now I have started receiving information that is non-screenplay or play form…but it is coming to me in the format of a book.  I write in whatever format the stories come to me in.

As my history has basically been writing in either a screenplay or play format…I have never had to struggle with the stories…but I find writing a book different.  For me when writing a screenplay the screenplay unfolds before me as if I am seeing it at the movies.  It is the same kind of thing for plays…except I see them being perform on stage…as I am creating the text.  I hear every voice and know every nuance, and every character.

Because I do not try to plot or create a story…no, I allow the story to develop on its own (but everyone has their own techniques as to how they write and develop their stories and characters).  I am always surprised by the course of events, the cast of characters that pop up in my storylines, their dialogs and the eventual end of my creative writings…be they a play or a screenplay or Radio Drama.   And that whole proccess is even more interesting and exciting to me when I am creating Radio Dramas. 

There is something about Radio Dramas that really excite me when those stories come to me.  I guess it is that they are a bit trickier and have to be paced quicker than writing a regular screenplay or play because of all the on-running storylines, varied sub-plots, and of course more main players due to the varying storylines.  Having to create all of that dialog…which when you think about a Radio Drama it is nothing but a lot of dialog, some music and sound effects…that in of itself forces you to become more creative.  You must master creating natural sounding conversations which have to move the storylines along without getting bogged down.  And finally, writing a Radio Drama is more of a balancing act than anything else…trying to give equal time to 2 or 3 storylines.  To be able to create a good Radio Drama is truly prefecting of the art of story telling.  The unfortunate part about it…there isn’t a great demand for Radio Dramas anymore…they for the most part are a thing of the past…very sadly.

Imagine spending $2000.00 on something…to self-publish a book that everytime you picked it up to look at it…you cringed.  Because that is exactly what I would have been doing…had I printed “THE BISHOP’S WIFE” with all the errors that I just located this weekend while going back over the story…not to mention all the prior errors I had found earlier.  If I had printed that book with all those errors in it…I wouldn’t have been able to look at it.  It would have been a total waste of my money.

There is nothing worst than a book printed with a ton of errors…2 are too many.   And I am not saying it is perfect…that is not what I am saying.  I am trying to get it to perfection…and it sure is a lot closer to it now than it was before.  But one thing is definitely for sure, it is a lot better piece of work too than it was before I found this last group of some reall horrid errors in my text.  I caught stuff that would have really made me sick to my stomach…missing words…tons of them.  To have printed my book earlier would have been more than embarrassing to me.   It would have been a disgrace…of the professional I think I am.

So, before I send it out…I’m going to go through it again. 

I think you will like the story…it is fictional about a 50’s something woman who marrys a Bishop, but she can’t let go of her thoughts about an old flame.  Definitely, not biographical.  Well…it could be…but not.  Least ways I don’t think so…   You’ll just have to read it.   “THE BISHOP’S WIFE”…one thing for sure it is radical.  You will have to hold onto your seats for this ride.   So, look out for it.

Talking about language…here’s your Chinese for today.

If you remember I taught you… Ni hao….meaning ‘hello’  of ‘good morning’

the word “hao” is Chinese for ‘good’  ….‘ni’ prepresents the person   and ‘nim‘  a group of people    as in  ‘nim hao’  or ‘ni hao’  ….pronounced as  “nimb how”    and   “knee how”

Ni hao ma?     How are you      pronounced…‘knee how ma’   you can answer simply by saying ‘hao’ meaning ‘good‘  or that you are well.     So, ‘hao’ means good.      or you say the same thing to a group of people by saying….

Nim hao.     which means  ‘hello’ to a group of people      when you add the ‘ma‘  you have the sentence into a question….  nim hao ma?    meaning ‘how are you’…which would really translate to ‘how are all of you’.

When you hear the word ‘gor ren’  sounds just like the bird’s name ‘wren’…..when you hear ‘gor ren’ they are talking about a group of people.   Here again I have given you my verision of what it sounds like…not the exactual Chinese spelling of the word.        If you were to say “Mei gor ren”  …you would be saying that you are American.   It is pronounced  “May gor ren” ….I am American.

I am sure that saying will come in handy in China if you go to the Olympics.

And one more thing about those raccoons…I could never have gone up there if had not I believed that God has given us dominion over every living thing.  It’s in the Bible…and He is true to His word.   Be bless…  

Be good…and don’t forget to keep sharing this blog with your family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, classmates, the woman in the grocery store, your church…etc…everybody.  For interesting…information and insightful information…    www.bsmith101.wordpress.com    …pass it on…

I am not chasing any raccoon!  And I mean it!

I’ve got to find me a husband. ©2008

1 comment July 29, 2008

Katrina…FEMA… responsibility…

FEMA says they should be free of prosecution regarding the Katrina trailers…because they were responding to a catastrophe.

And what about the catastrophe and exceeding grief beyond all relief that FEMA knowingly produced by supplying the Hurricane Katrina victims with trailers laced with toxic poison? 

The government more so than others should always be held to the utmost standards of responsibility and the law. 

A government should protect its people…not throw them to the wolves and then turn its backs on the people it claims to represent.  

That is exactly what FEMA did.  FEMA threw the Katrina victims to the trailer manufacturing wolves knowing that the housing by way of highly contaminated trailers given to them would be hazardous and toxic to each and every person and family that entered them.

The FEMA trailers used to housed hundreds of thousands of Katrina victims were cheaply made…and made out the cheapest and most dangerous and deadly building materials money could buy…manufactured using formaldehyde a poisonous cancerous contaminant.  By having done so…FEMA managed to get more trailers for their dollars…but at what cost to the Katrina victims?

Their lives…the life of every man, woman and child…that spent a night or even a few hours in one of the Katrina trailers given to them as temporary replacement housing my their government.

The cheap hazardous housing sanctioned by FEMA…the Federal Emergency Managment Agency, an arm of Homeland Security of the United States of America…those FEMA trailers given to those who had lost everything during a raging hurricane which hit the Gulf Coast with vast davastation everywhere…they were given trailers which failed to meet federal safety standards of this country…and that the U.S. government, FEMA and the trailer manufacturers knew to be highly hazardorous, toxic and would be very deadly to the people who would inhabit them.

Yes, the U.S. government was negligent…very much so…and should be held accountable, as well as, all of the manufacturers,  who supplied trailers to FEMA for the purpose of housing Katrina victims…because they knowingly signed the death warrant…they did it knowingly…they knowingly signed the death warrant of hundred of thousands of people who had already lost everything…but their lives during Katrina.  And no amount of money is ever going to give that back to them.

And they did it all…for thirty pieces of silver…FEMA and those trailer manufacturers.

For FEMA to seek to take the owness off of themselves simply by saying…they did it because they were dealing with a catastrophe is more than irresponsible…but proaches upon callousness.

Gulfstream one of the manufacturers who got a heffy chuck of the FEMA money for suppling trailers to Hurricane Katrina victims…is a huge company with lots of luxury trailers. 

How can a company that makes trailers like this want to provide such cheap and harmful housing to anyone?

How can you do that to people who have already lost everything? 

It was like feeding them poison.  

And that is exactly what this government’s agency, FEMA along with Gulfstream and everyone else involved and aided in helping it to happen…it is what they did.  They fed the Katrina victims poison…they eat poison, slept in poison, drank poison, watched televison in poison…their children played in it and slept in it etc…and they all sucked in that poison with each and every breath that they took.

And FEMA, Gulfstream and every other manufacturer involved knew of the extremely high elevated levels of  formaldehyde in the Katrina trailers.   FEMA and its manufacturers chose to use those matterials and to give them to the Katrina victims…who have suffered all types of victimization since Katrina…that has made their survival through the hurricane look like child’s play.  Having survived Katrina…Katrina’s victims have come to find that man’s greed has proven to be more deadly and dangerous than a hurricane. 

Hurricane Katrina victims are now slowly dying from the formaldehyde contamination of their FEMA trailers…them and their children.    You can read more on this by clicking on the Links below.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1645312,00.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080723/ap_on_re_us/toxic_trailers 

http://www.pbase.com/septembermorn/katrina_was_no_lady

Well, we have finally gotten a break in the weather.  I should be running around and trying to get as much done as I can…but…  ….well, I’m on vacation.

Finally, yesterday started buying some food for my rib business…but I quickly ran out of money.  So, I am still in need of a few things before I can get started.  I am, however, watching the clock and calendar…since I have the grill…everyday I’m not up and running…the way I see it is this…I’m loosing money.  It is just the way it is. 

So, I’m hoping that before the weekend is out I’ll be up and going.  And I have already set my goal to sell 50 sandwiches, 50 lemonades…would be a good start.  Then I would want to double it next week.   My goal is low because we’re not advertising…and looking to only start off with one or two days from the yard.  You would be surprised just how much traffic goes pass my parent’s house.

Hey…you’ve got to start right where you are.  Sometimes it is the only way to go.

Well, God bless….     and have a beautiful day.

ps…there has been some flap over what the City of Denver plans to do with homeless people during the 2008 Democratic National Convention on the 25th of August.

1. They plan on allowing the homeless to stay longer during the day in the shelters
2. They will be issuing movie tickets to them
3. They will give them tickets to the museum
4. They plan to give them bus tickets to get around town to various events for which they are giving them tickets to go

To the homeless it will seem like Christmas in August. 

Obviously, it is an effort to keep the homeless away from the convention and the many people who will be invading Denver…and some say to make the homeless invisible.  But to a group of people who usually find themselves being chased out of every place like they are vipers…it will be a welcomed treat.

Oh, yes…I almost forgot to give you your second Chinese word…or saying.       xie xie…   it means thank you.    It is pronounced     cher shay…   don’t go by the way it looks…not all Chinese words sound as you would think.   Some do but they are very few…far and in between.

Now, I have taught you 2 things in Chinese.   So, if you are going to the Olympics you will find that these words will come in handy.

And since I am teaching you…let me teach you this too.    Bu dong….it means I don’t understand.

This pronounced as it looks   ….boo dung     …is how it is pronounced.

Also, in China their negative ….is  “bu”  …there is no “no” in Chinese as in other languages.

Well, enjoy China if you go to the Olympics.  ©2008

2 comments July 24, 2008

Starbucks closing stores, Recession…

STARBUCKS…

What has to be one of fastest growing companies in America, Starbucks is announcing that it will be closing some of its stores and will let go of some 12,000 employees both full-time and part-time employees.  Which, of course, as I mentioned after having visited Detroit…whenever I hear about companies downsizing I now think of what that means in terms of the people who will lose their jobs.

Though the Bush Administration refuses to call it a recession there can be no denying that the times are a bit harder for most folks…and the escalating gas prices does not make it any easier.

Though, however, while I was sitting in the convention last week and looking around at everyone, I was thinking that we, those of us in church, are looking at a time of increase.  And that our lives differ in many ways from most people…simply because we are who we are…God’s people…His exclusive property.  His elect.

I am reminded of that story of Joseph when he was asked to interpret Pharaoh’s’s dream.  That dream was about 7 years of excess and 7 years of famine.  Because Pharaoh respected that interpretation they were able to ride out those years of famine because they prepared for it. 

Preparation is so important.  We have to be prepared for anything and everything.  It is the wise thing to do.  The only point is…is that most of us live from day to day…with barely enough to make it into tomorrow.  So, to say ‘we should save’ is nice but everybody just cannot afford to save anything because they simply do not make enough money…as they can barely make enough to meet their current daily needs much less try to put some away for a rainly day.  And rainy days do come.

So, what do those people do?

Those people who lose their jobs and are not trained to do anything other than what they had done for the last 16 years.  Who aren’t as computer savy and many of their jobs and past skills are now outdated.  What do they do?

One way to off-set this…is to always look ahead.  Never get in a situation where you feel comfortable that your situation will not change.  Change comes every day.  It can come in the form of new management, a new supervisor, corporate buy-outs, deaths, changing technologies etc…change…change…change.

We have got to be prepared for change.

We have got to keep updating our skills…learn computers…new softwares.  And never lock yourself into one thing.  Develop other skills and watch market trends…and make wise and good choices.

Prepare yourself for tomorrow.

Well, I’m going to get some sleep.  I’ve got a lot to do tomorrow…I’m planning our big outdoor summer ministry affair.  So, I have got to get this permit signed by the Chief of the Fire Deptment, the city public works people, the police department, public health department etc…etc…   And then I have to start calling people to get them locked in…not to mention work on creating our flyers and other media info.  So, yes…I will be busy tomorrow.

This is for that ENTREPRENEUR in You….

And oh, yes…I’m buying a very large grill figured I need to raise some money for our event so I have decided to start selling rib sandwiches.  I couldn’t eat enough ribs while I was in Detroit.  And while on the road my son told me a story of an entrepreneur who began selling ribs out of his yard and eventually turned his back yard into a real restaurant.  I like listening to those kind of stories about people who do unique things just because they are forced to and some how become successful by having done so.

I pray that the woes of loosing a job or trying to find a job in this tight job market are not yours.  But if so…always keep in mind that when one door closes…another opens.  We all possess the powers and skills to become successful in this life.  It only gets down to…how much do you want it?  And are you willing to make the sacrifices to make it happen?

Success is not cheap and it does not come over-night.  You have to fight for success…but it is achievable.

And when I say ‘that success is not cheap’…I do not mean in the monetary sense. 

Many times you just have to get started whether you have the money or not.  Don’t wait on money…you’ll never do anything sitting around waiting on the money to come.  Get started now.  The money will come…but you must get started.  And along the way you will begin to develop relationships and other avenues that will supercede your lack of finances…and have more value to you and your business.  

Well, God bless…and I am hoping you have a beautiful day.  ©2008

Add a comment July 9, 2008