Cullen Jones, Venus & Serena …Michelle O

It’s 4:00 and I’m just getting up.   Didn’t go to sleep until after I mopped the kitchen and bathroom early this morning and scrubbed down the tub.  Sometimes you just can’t sleep until you have done some things…and that was after 5 AM this morning.

I guess I should have turned on the television yesterday so I could have seen Cullen Jones shatter the World Record at the Olympics in China. He is classified as the fastest swimmer in the world…#1, baby. Ching-ching…I hear the cash registers now.

And they said we couldn’t swim.

Born in the Bronx…as in New York City…all the more reason why he should not be a swimmer…but maybe a ball handler.

So much for stereotyping.

New York is known as the concrete jungle…simply because there isn’t much green.  Few trees, grass, parks etc.   But plenty of playgrounds and basketball courts.  It is a wonder that more champion basketball players don’t come from it…which by the way is the home of LaBron James…Brooklyn in the house.

Raised in New Jersey…Irvington…which at one point was rated as the having the higest rate of auto thief in the U.S.    It’s part of the Newark, East Orange part of Jersey…and it can be very rough.

Did I say can?

It is very rough.

In fact it is so rough…that Whitney Houston made a point of reminding Wendy Williams that she was from Newark.

When I heard Whitney say that…I had to laugh…because I knew what it meant. It meant that Whitney was not afraid of storming up into that radio station and taking care of Wendy on-air or off of it. That is how those folk in Newark think…those Jersey people.   They are rough.

I never really listened to this Wendy and Whitney interview (all the way through) until after I posted this blog…and though I am not a cursing woman…and hate to hear such language…I can only say that one day Whitney will look back (as many of us have) and wished she could remove all of these things which are in the public domain…because she will regret them.  Maybe the not telling off of Wendy part…but she will regret the state that she was in at the time. 

I know a changed Whitney Houston is going to emerge one day…one who will proclaim that this was who she was…’but today I am a new creature through my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.’    And she shall walk in the steps that God has ordered for her.

Once I started looking up in youtube for the Whitney stuff and Wendy…I could not resist these other videos.

Let me take the time to say that I am praying for Whitney Houston who after a concert at Radio City (some years ago) where I had an opportunity to be at the after party…and everybody who is anybody was there…LaToya Jackson, Cicely Tyson…I can’t even think of half of the people who were there…just everybody…Stevie…every artists and New York City media person and politician etc.   All of them clamoring for a piece of Whitney.  She was the diva of the hour.  In demand at every turn.  My how they seemed to love her then.

I think back on that night and Whitney’s fall…and all the jokes that have come upon her since having fallen…and I think about how people truly are.  Everyone loves you when you’re up…but don’t fall. They’ll make jokes about you and call you outside of your name.  There is something about kicking people when they are down…that so many seem to love to do.  I suspect it all stems from some level of envy of the person while they were up…and of course, there is money in being mean…just ask Wendy.

It is sad…I pray that Whitney’s life will turn drastically around and that she will become a true witness and testimony about the goodness of God…because He is capable of doing all things.  I can say this because I know what He did for me.

How could I have been so deep into lesbianism…and yet He pulled me out…and turned me around?

I was far from seeking a change in my life…but God wasn’t.

I see it in her…Whitney…particularly in that youtube clip where she talks about her daughter…of one day sitting back and seeing her daughter as a woman of God.  That speaks volumes…for Whitney and the training that her mother instilled in her.

***She is on her way back!!!

Praise the Lord.  

I serve a God who can do all things…but fail.   I am happy to see that Whitney is getting her life back on track.  And hopefully at some point that she will begin to walk in the steps that God has ordered for her life. 

Though you can see the scars from the years of  the drug abuse…but she  looks great… and more and more like her aunt…Dionne.

The  prayers of  the righteous availeth much.

Now back to Cullen…that other person from New Jersey…the Jersey boy…or should I say young man who will be coming home an Olympic Champion…and had left for China as already being one.

I used to work at a radion station in Jersey, WNJR…and had to go through those mean streets many a days to get to and from work.  Newark…Irvington…Union and the Oranges are no joke…New York was a lot milder.

Ranked #1 in the world the 50 meters freestyle, Cullen already has a 7 year deal with Nike which is reportedly worth more than $2 million.  Not bad for a bright young man with some really fast swimming skills.

At 24 years of age…Cullen having broken 3 world records can look forward to many more endorsements…which will surely be for quite a lot more money since he will be returning home all wrapped in gold after last night’s race through that beautiful water of that Olympic pool in China…and the team gold he also managed to acquire.

An English Major with a Minor in Psychology from North Carolina State he is said to be very humble. And he is a champion who wants to give back to his community and that is oh so…so important.

Cullen is to be saluted…for his valour, his devotion, his God given skills, humility and generosity of spirit…a real champion.  His mother and father taught him well.

http://www.usaswimming.org/usasweb/DesktopModules/BioViewManaged.aspx?personid=51c2fb07-a280-4c57-8196-9e874d4f690d&TabId=388&Mid=597

 

Serena and Venus have won 3.  On Tuesday they won in their singles matches and in their doubles game.  CLICK below to read more.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/tennis/news?slug=ap-ten-tennis&prov=ap&type=lgns

Shame on China for deciding that one little girl was not good looking enough…but that she had a great voice.  So, they elected to allow a more visually attractive little girl to lip-sync while the other little girl, 7 years old, with her crooked teeth and lack of stage presence was hid away from the public eye…as she sung their Olympic song.

What a sad story that is.  And that 7 year old will probably grow up to be such a beauty…and still have a fantastic voice…probably even better.  And she’ll have the last laugh then.

What a disgrace for China.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=ap-china-lip-synchedsong&prov=ap&type=lgns

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=207187&cl=9247790&ch=6527422&src=sports

The Democratics are getting ready for the Democratic National Convention set to kick off on August 25th in Denver, CO.  During the first night of the convention Michelle Obama is set to be speaking.

I guess I will have to turn on the television…I do not want to miss a minute of the convention.  This is as much history in the making as when the founding fathers decided how this country was going to be run…and formed the policies for its operation…called the Constitution of the United States.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080812/ap_on_el_pr/democratic_convention_speakers

Xia xia…that’s is Chinese for thanks or thank you…for reading.   And pass it on… www.bsmith101.wordpress.com   to all your friends, family and foe.  Enjoy the rest of your day…and God bless… ©2008

Add a comment August 12, 2008

It hurts sometimes… but you just have to say it

Let me apologize to all the office workers out there…because the worker who was trying to help me…well, she was right.

I had it all messed up.  Sent them the wrong forms and everything.

So, office worker’s of America…I apologize.  It is not always you.  Nor is it always your fault.  But sometimes it is us.  (you can read my last blog to get the whole story)

I was talking with a friend most recently who told me that I rarely think that I am ever wrong.

Which is definitely not the case.

Only a fool would think that.  And there are a lot of people who believe that they are never wrong…but I am not one of them.

Not only can I be wrong…but I have done some stupid things in my life.  Said some things…that I should not have.  Acted in ways…that I wouldn’t have liked to acted but did.

That is why growing up is so important.  Accepting responsibility is a very necessary factor…and just being able to say-

“I was wrong.”

Or yes…even, “I’m sorry.”

Sometimes if you just say it to nobody but yourself…

“I was wrong.”

It is better than never saying it at all.

But here is one that really should be said as often as you can.

“I love you.”

And to as many people as you can say it to…with truth.

The Olympics start tomorrow.  I understand that there are some issues with smog.  Some of the athletes are even wearing facial masks in order try to keep out the pollution.  Though the Chinese Government says that there is no reason for alarm or concern.   They, however, placed a ban on their over 3.3 million vehicles on the road by drasticly cutting the number of vehicles they will allow to operate on the roadways during the Olympic Games.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=ap-ioc-pollution&prov=ap&type=lgns

Just a little tidbit on the effects of bad quality air. 

When I was in LA for the first few days it didn’t bother me…but as the days worn on.  I started feeling continuously dehydrated.  I could not get enough to drink.  I didn’t know what it was.  Then physically I started feeling sluggish…like my energy level was way down. 

It was the smog.  And LA is loaded with it…you can see it. 

When you are accustom to breathing that in everyday…of course, it won’t have any effect upon you.  Because your system is use to it…and your body has adapted to it.  But coming from the East Coast….no, baby. 

It bothered me.  And the effects of it were very real. 

Well, thanks for reading.    ….and God bless.

Oh, yes.

I’ve got to get you ready for November.  Please at some point just drop by City Hall and double check your voter registration.  There is nothing as frustrating as waiting in line to place your vote…and then being told that there is some kind of problem.

One time it was because I hadn’t filled out some consensus form which had been sent to the house.  And another time…I can’t even remember what that was about.

But both times I was prohibited from voting.  These are the kind of things which come up and can make a large difference in whose votes get counted and whose don’t. 

So, before November run into your local Voter Registration Office and just double check your status…to ensure that you vote gets into the mix and is counted.

And while you are in that office grab up some voter registration forms to pass out to all your relatives and friends…get it back from them and take them to the voter registry yourself.  Lets get everybody registered and out to vote this coming November.

And don’t forget to pass it on…. Why not share me with all your friends and family etc…etc…?  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com   ©2008

Add a comment August 7, 2008

Frustration… Sailing… getting a grip

Will the frustrations ever end?

Trying to get a document signed by the court so that it can be sent to another court. 

What I hate is when you are talking to someone  and they act like they can’t understand what you are saying to them.  Or like when what you are asking them about is something that they do not do everyday…when it is.

I think that acting stupid on a job has become a thing a lot of people like to practice simply because they are not interested in helping anybody.  And I hate to put it in those terms…but it is true.

I have gone into some offices where people literally don’t make eye contact with you…just to keep from having to get up and service someone at a counter waiting.  This, however, is not always the case…and thank God it isn’t.  Those people who are on top of their job…well, before you hit the counter they are already smiling and waiting for you to speak.   I like those kind of people.  And they are always helpful in servicing you…those we can call premium workers. 

Here goes…and I want to know if you get this.

I send you a document and I tell you that I need to have it signed by the judge and entered into the record…meaning placed into our case file.

Now, you work for the court…have been a clerk there for years.

Don’t you think that you would understand what I was asking?  Can’t be that hard…they get documents everyday that have to be signed by a judge and entered into the record.

So, why doesn’t anybody understand what I am saying…when I say it????

Since last week Wednesday I have been trying to get this document signed that I need to get back to the Appeals Court A.S.A.P…as soon as possible…for those of you who may not recognize the acronym.  But no one seems to know what to do…or understand what needs to be done.

And my time is running out…quick…like yesterday. 

So, today I decided to take a more calmer and nicer approach and plead my case upon the person who is suppose to be handling what I need done. 

I am informed that a little sugar goes a long ways.

Don’t you just love those old sayings?

We should endeavor to keep them.  They are filled with much wisdom.

And besides throwing sugar into the pot…I got up praying on it this morning.  Because I really need to get this done.  Or our appeal of our case involving Allstate is out the window.

So, it all gets down to this one person…and God having to put a hand into our affair to motivate her to do what we need done.  And get it done today…and in the mail today on it way to Raliegh…by tomorrow.

So, will you kindly pray with me…and for us. 

Speaking of praying there is so much sickness going around.  On Sunday I was back in New York visiting with my friend whom we believe is passing.  Her body is swelling now…and I am not sure that she knew I was there.

Before leaving for New York…I recalled what I said in my last blog about not being a real friend to my college friend who had battled MS shortly after graduating.  I recalled that when I wrote that blog, I stated that I had been weak and did nothing but cry when I was in her presence…and out of it as well.  Her illness sadden me greatly…and I really couldn’t understand…’why her and not me?’

Before leaving for New York on Sunday, I decided that I was going to be strong and not cry…that I would not be weak when I went in to visit my friend whom believed was in the process of passing. 

But when I got there…I cried nonetheless.

When my friend who had MS became ill…I was not saved.  But I still understood the power of prayer. 

I recall being at the radio station that I was working at in her town…and it was on a Sunday.  I had been on the phone trying to talk with her…whom at this time I could barely understand at all.  As a Pastor came into the radio studio…I was weeping over the phone…tears rolling down my face…and I asked him if he would please take the phone and say a prayer for my friend.

There have been times when I look back and wish I had gotten saved earlier…and that was one of the times.  I would have loved to be able to share with my friend in the spirit of holiness…to have been able to pray for her myself instead of having to seek someone else out.

Well, I still haven’t found my Chinese book…so, I can’t share with you much…except for saying  “wu papa mama“….which is the Chinese way of saying my parents or my father and mother.    ‘Wu papa mama hao.‘    hao is pronounced ‘how‘….and I just finished saying that my parents are well.  Hao is Chinese for good.  And if I said…”Wu papa mama hao ma?” ….that would translate to “How are your parents?”

Slowly but surely you are dragging it out of me.  But my Chinese Professor, “wu laoshi“…which is pronounced “looah sure“…meaning my teacher, professor, learned person…was fabulous.  So good in fact that a group of us elected…and I do mean elected to continue to study under her for 3 semesters.  She not only taught us just the language but customs and Chinese culture too.  We…well, yes…I can say us…all of us…we came out of those classes well taught.  And the funny part about it from the very first day…we were able to speak Chinese.  ‘Ni hao’ and all of that came out our very first class.  It was wonderful.  Not to mention to be able to recognize and write the Chinese characters, as well.

Life is about learning.

Turning an eye to the political arena…I am just so surprise that I have not heard very much from either Obama or McCain. 

Have they had any debates yet?

Since I don’t watch television, or pick up the newspaper…most of what I read…or see comes over the internet.  So, I am not always abreast of everything.

I still say that politically it has been too quiet for the Presidential Election to nearly be around the corner.  This only signifies to me that the Republicans are really working on something.  They are not quiet for no reason. 

The clock is ticking…and they most definitely are up to something.  They (the Republicans) are like a bunch of bad kids in the back room.  When it gets too quiet you have to get up and go check on them.  Because when bad kids get too quiet it always means that they are up to something…and usually doing what they are not suppose to be doing.

And whatever it is that they are plotting…those Republicans…they know they have to come big and hard…or not come at all.  Because the White House belongs to Obama…his name is all over it.

A friend was telling me that most libraries are suffering from the lack of people feeling a necessity to use them anymore due to the internet…being able to access all the information they want right in comfort of their homes and at their leisure.

He continued on to say that one day the need for libraries will really be no more as people become connected to the internet.  As he was stating that most of the people who go into where he works…really only go in to use the computers.

I told him that this was not the case in New York City.  In New York the libraries and museums are all a buzz of activity with droves of people utilizing their services.  But then New Yokers are readers…they also enjoy taking advantage of all services provided to them for free.  And why not?   Because New York is very expensive…so if it is free…the parks…the museums…the libraries…whatever events…they are showing up and they will be there in droves. 

And you know…that is the way it should be.

We should all feel that exact same way about facilities or services that are availed unto us either for free or for nominal amounts.

I would not say that I am cheap…but I do try to avail myself of things that are open to me that I feel I will enjoy, learn something or…I don’t know….maybe just cause it’s free…or doesn’t cost much.

I have had classes at the Learning Annex…a place in New York City which offers an array of fantastic classes on just about anything you have an interest in.  And most of the time…well…back then those classes were just a little over $20.00 for the most part.   

The first time I decided to learn about the web…I took classes at the Learning Annex to do it.  My classes were usually one night sessions…where I met the guys who started About.com and all kinds of other people doing a variety of things.  I took my first hmtl class at the Annex also…and my sailing classes…yes, I did say sailing…and I took them through the Learning Annex, as well. 

In fact, I will never forget walking through the long underground corridors of the World Trade Center from the ‘A’ train…rushing to get breakfast at a busy greasy spoon sub-level World Trade Center restaurant…then rushing out a side door hoping I wasn’t late for my sailing class at the Manhattan Yacht Club.  And I wasn’t.

It is funny but I have a fear of water.  But I love looking at it. 

I had been thinking about buying a sail boat…they look so beautiful.  My passion for sail boats and wanting to own one I think comes from Chicago…and my many days on Lake Shore Drive just looking out on Lake Michigan.  The water was so beautiful…but man…oh, man….those sail boats.  I wish I had had a camera and thought to take pictures of it.  It was just beautiful.

So, I decided to learn how to sail…ir-regardless of my fear of deep water.

This was my second class when I got out there on the boat…and there were about 3 or 4 of our class sail boats going out that day.

Sail boats sit very low on the water.  So, with every wave and everything else you are feeling it.  But it is funny out on that boat…in that choppy water of the Hudson River…I didn’t think about the depth of the water as I walked along the sides of the boat and aided with the sails.

On that beautiful day…suddenly there was a call from boat to boat.

They were relaying the message that John-John, John Kennedy had just died in a crash near the Cape in his plane.  He had gone down into the sea.

I will never forget that day thinking that I was in the very same water that John’s airplane had gone down in.   I thought it ironic that I was out there taking sailing classes in thoses waters that day.

That I should have been out there in that water on that very day sticks with me to this very day.  I cried of course for him…because it sadden me deeply to know that he was now gone too.

I never went back for my third sailing class…in fact I tried to find somebody to take my place…as I had already paid for it.  But when my instructor shouted to me-

“See you next week.”

I said,  “No…I don’t think so.” 

And when he asked me why, I told him about my bouts of dizziness.  And he told me I would get use to it.

That is when I commenced jokingly to tell him that his constitution and my constitution were made up of 2 different things. 

There was no way I was going to ever going to get use to sailing.  Let me say it again…there was no way that I was going to ever get use to sailing…and there was just no need for me trying to fool myself.  I had done it twice…and each time had suffered the same after effect.  It was like being sick to my stomach.  While out on the boat I was fine…well, lets say I did a lot better out there the second time.  But getting back on land…was a whole other story. 

There went my sail boat…just like that.

I just didn’t like getting off the sail boat being overcome by everything going up and down as though I was still out on the water.  I could barely walk…and it seemed that everything was spinning.  And it took we a while before I would finally get back to being normal.  It was like I was drunk or something. 

No sea legs for me.  And no sail boat either.

I am sorry sail boat…but I will just have to admire you from afar.

Well, God bless…   One of my friends said I read your blog-

“Are you still taking your iron tablets?”  

Well, I could definitely tell that she had been reading.  And yes I am still taking my iron tablets…speaking of which I better do it right now while I’m thinking about it.

And one of my friends said to me-

“I hear you are going into the Rib business.”

And he told me I better add some fish to my menu.  Now, I’m going to see if he is really reading these things.  Because I told hi-

“I guess I could steam you some fish.”

But only if he brings it…along with some onions and green peppers.  I’ll put it on.  Now, I’m going to see if he is really reading my blogs. LOL…    take care and have a beautiful day.

I have been doing some cleaning.  And yesterday just bought the rest of the meats I need to open up my shop and get that grill going.   But one thing…or a few things actually I don’t have…and again have run out of money.  I didn’t get any bread or ice…or a container to serve our fresh squeezed lemonade from.  

Oh, well…soon.  And you will always be welcome to stop on by. 

Don’t forget to share this blog address with all of your friends, family and anybody you just hate…but want to give them something to read.  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com    pass it on…and on…and on….

I like this video so much by Wanda, Jennette and Sheila (the Emotions)…actually it is the song that they are singing that I like…that I decided to…well, why not….

…be blessed.

I have just received word that my friend whom we felt was in the process of passing…has passed.  Thank you, Lord…for releasing her. ©2008

Add a comment August 5, 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

Starbucks closings…Obama …Sir Barley

Since I see that so many people have come here to read about Starbucks closing of several of their stores, I decided to give you a bit more info on those closings.

But let me begin with this…I really can’t see myself paying $4.00 for a cup of anybody’s coffee.   Sorry, Mr. Starbuck…but it is just the way it is.  It’s…it is how I feel.  I just can’t see it.

I know people are all wrapped up in image…but does holding a cup with ‘Starbucks’ logo really have more value than a cup with ‘Dunkin Donuts’ logo on it.

I mean all through the Decocratic Primaries…people were saying that Obama attracks the Starbuck crowd…and Hillary the Dunkin Donuts people.   Huh????

Why all this division?

Breaking people down by coffee lines…it is all a bit too much.

Maybe it is just that I am not a coffee person. 

My father being Jamaican…and Jamaica being a British Colony once upon a time…so what do the Brit’s drink?   Tea, of course.  And so that is what most Jamaicans drink…and Chinese too.  So, our household is basically all tea drinkers…following right after daddy and our Jamaican hertiage and tradition.  And it extends all the way down to daddy’s grand-children and great-grand children…and since they are basically still kids we haven’t gotten to the fourth generation yet.  Who will also undoubtedly also mostly be a bunch of tea drinkers too, I am sure.

Starbucks has to have the record for being one of the fastest growing companies in America.  I have never seen a company grown so fast.

But then they seem to have made all the right moves in the beginning.  They started off with statilite stores…branched off into deals where they went into places like Virgin Records and other high traffic locations which proved to be excellent decisions for them.  Because people who purchase $13/$15 CD’s certainly also have enough to buy a $4.00 cup of coffee.  And they did.

Starbucks a Seattle based company has 7,100 company owned stores across the country.  Some time this year the company plans to close 600 of its under producing stores.  Which means they will be laying off some 12,000 employees…which the company says it will try to place as many of them as possible at other store locations.

In February of this year, Starbucks fired some 600 other employees and is currently periodically shutting down stores during some regular business hours in order to do some re-training of its employees.

It is probably safe to say…that if you work at a Starbucks that is inside a Barnes & Nobles or a Virgin Records location…or any high volume/high traffic area…your store will probably not be closing.

For a listing of the closing stores Click Link below.

http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/USStoreClosureInfo.pdf

Or go to…

http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/pressdesc.asp?id=882

And to read more on the story via ABC News Click on the Link below.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5288740

These youtube videos may need some loading time…if so lower the volume all the way and read the blog or all of my blogs until it loads completely.  The stop and go will drive you crazy otherwise.  Thank you.   

And while I am sharing…don’t forget to share this blog address with all your friends, family, church, the people upstairs and down the street too…  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com      the place to be when it comes to staying on top of what is important…interesting…and insightful.   Pass it on….

Barack Obama is quite a family man…a man who clearly loves his wife and his children as is evident in his pictures with them, everytime you see him with his wife and in his comments concerning them.  For such passion to extend itself into the public and political area is a gift to those of us who shall soon reap the rewards of it…which shall also be reaped by those of the whole world also when he becomes President of the United States of America in November of this year.

Clearly the people in Germany, France, England and Israel who gathered to hear him speak recognized that Obama is an extrodinary person…that kind of person only goes around once in a lifetime.

So, to have been on this planet to have seen and heard the likes of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Nelson Mandela etc. we can truly say that we have been blessed.  Because we have truly be blessed to be here in the company of some very extra-ordinary people who have shown us what true love and commitment is all about.

Now, in walks Barack Obama.

From the time he hit the world stage at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. They saw it then…the press…they all saw it…and when he stepped from the stage they touted him ‘The Future of the Democratic Party.’

It was upon that stage as he addressed the members of the convention that Barack Obama literally looked out and saw his destiny. And from the moment he stepped off that stage he began working towards today and where he will be come November of this year, 2008…the President of the United States of America.

Some people don’t trust him because they look at him as not being black enough.

Others look at him and say he is too black.

The hispanic say he will only do for black people and forget about us.

 It is quite clear that Barack Obama does not wish for his children or grand-children to inherit the chaos and fear that the Bush Administration has ushered into the United States.

He does not want his daughters…nor their children to live under the cloud of uncertainty of what tomorrow may bring for this country or this world.

Through all of its current troubles, Barack Obama has chosen to shoulder the burden…to take on the responsibility of trying to right this country again…to rewrite the history of American that George Bush and his people so callously sought to undermind and undo.

When he left Harvard, he hit the streets of the ghetto working to undo social ills and injustices. It is in his nature to champion the cause of the people.  When you read about his mother, you see that it runs in the blood…the seeking to unify the world and caring for others.   It is what Barack Obama is all about.

This week in Germany, we got a chance to see that the world too sees something special in Barack Obama.  To hear those people in Germany chant ‘change’ and call out his name was more than moving.

They say that Barack Obama doesn’t know enough.  He has no experience…no.  And they are right.  He has not had any experience running with the liars and the cheats who have made up this country’s government for years. 

This country needs somebody who isn’t down with the ‘crew.’  Somebody not afraid to make his own decisions.  Not afraid to be wrong if he thinks it is in the best interest of this country.  Not afraid of second guess himself and yet comtemplate the decision and its overall impact.

This country needs somebody who is not afraid to stand alone.  Who is not afraid to say wrong is wrong.

Give me somebody young and yearning for training.  Don’t give me somebody who thinks he already knows everything…and doesn’t know nothing.

I don’t care who goes into the White House or who has gone into it in past…they all had to learn on the job.  It is not like going to work from one fast food place to another…or from one corporate office into another. 

It is not…it is the White House…the Presidency.  

Until you get voted in…you can’t possibly have all of or a fifth of the capabilities to do it.  Most of it comes with on the job-training.  For anybody to say anything else is a lie.  No corporate CEO has ever been under the pressure of the President of the United States…nothing is like the job of being the President of this country.

Barack Obama not only looked Presidential in Germany…he spoke Presidential.  He speaks with authority, leadership, knowledge and a zeal for this country that we have not heard for a very long time.  Give me that any day…because I know the rest will follow.

Unlike any other President of this country…Barack Obama has lived as a child in several other countries.   Having done so he understands other people, their language, their cultures…that gives him a greater sensitivity to other nations that no other President of this country could have possibly had.  On the world stage or on domestic politics Barack Obama is head over heels beyond Senator John McCain.  There is no contest.

For the problems that Bush has brought to America’s door…we are going to need somebody who can think outside of the box…not trying to hide within the box.  But a real thinker and doer.  Someone with temperance and perhaps even some tolerance…and between Hillary and Jesse Jackson…and Rev. Jeramiah Wright…Obama has shown lots of that.  And certainly for one thing for sure it will, also, take more than politics as usual to straighten up the Bush messes that we are in.

Just a quick note on Charles Barley.  Like Reggie Jackson and so many other athletes that chose to do for others, Charles Barley while recently out dining came across a young man who was waiting on his table whom he recognized was in need of some help…in order to go on to college.  Barley stepped in and told the young man he would take care of his full college tuition…brings tears to my eyes.   I love these kind of stories.

And I love Charles Barley in that television commercial…he is so annoying. 

Great for you Charles Barley…and you can read more on this story by Clicking and Link below.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Charles-Barkley-tips-well-pays-busboy-s-tuition?urn=nba,95780

Okay, you China Olympics bound people…here is another Chinese word or saying…

Bu yong xie…pronounced   Boo you shay…    Remember that I told that ‘bu‘ is the Chinese negative… well, in this case too…but it depends upon what you want to say…

It translates into 2 meanings…     1.  You’re welcome

                                                     2.  No problem…

‘No problem’ is a popular saying or phrase in China.

If you remember ‘xie xie’… pronounced ‘sure shay’ ….meaning ‘thank you.’   then you recognize ‘xie’ (shay) in  Bu yong xie, as well.

Ni hao….you are saying ‘hi’ to one person       Nim hao…you are saying ‘hi’ to a group or more than one      

Ni hao ma…    Knee how ma  …..it means   hi, and how are you?    or how are you doing.

Nim hao ma…means  the exact same thing except you are addressing more than one person.     And ‘nim‘….is pronounced as you think  …as nimb.

Now, I am going to advance you a little bit….

Wu chew chin sway…. means I want water     (this I forgot to write out in the actual Chinese spelling…I was great for sitting in class and writing down ‘what it sounds like’…it was the only way I could learn the language.  Other than that…in less than 30 seconds I would forget).   

So, this means ‘I want water’ but remember it is not written in the actual Chinese spelling…and of course the Chinese do not really write this stuff out….no.  They use characters…or what we call Chinese characters.  And you have seen what Chinese characters look like…but we have never been able to make them out…or knew that each character symbolizes a Chinese word…and there are thousands of characters…and some even have a gender…to reference male or female.

Now, you have learned something else.   And remember that “wu” ….means ‘I’ or ‘me’… first person singular.    pronounced “woo.”

Well, I am suppose to really be doing some work today.  So, I better get to it.

Have a beautiful day…    God bless…. ©2008

Add a comment July 26, 2008

On the taboo subject…

I tried not to look but I couldn’t help myself I had to click to the story…about the supposed man giving birth to a child. 

Now, when I initially wrote on this story a few blogs ago…I knew that there had to be something wrong…because it was just out of sync.

And there was…the supposed man in the story…is really a woman living as a man who…I started to say had a sex change.  But she couldn’t have otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to have the baby or get impregnanted.

I am naive on many things…and I truly am.

But there are somethings which clearly just irritate me.

Why go through all of the trouble of trying to present yourself as a man…and then want to get pregnant?

What was she trying to make a mockery of?

Herself or God?

He can’t be made a mockery of.

And then to have this picture of her…well, supposely him and the baby together.  Well…

Was this just a media thang?

And now they…what? The gay couple exploit the child and their relationship? Selling their story to the tabloids and appearing on talk shows. Anything for a dime or a dollar.

I once knew someone…and I guess I still do…just that I haven’t seen them in a very long time.

When I first met this person I realized something was out of whack…but I could not put my hands on it. 

She lived in the same town as a friend of mines…and I say she because really that is what I met him as…and have only known him as.  Though I do realize to call him…her would be lying…though at the time of course I was not saved…nor trying to be.

Well, she lived in the same Jersey town as my friend…who was new to the area.  And I just thought it would be nice for them to meet and then my friend would have somebody to hang with over in Jersey.

It was my friend who informed of what I just couldn’t put my finger on.

She said to me one night…while we were all out at dinner or something I think…she said after the person had gotten up from the table-

“I know you kept saying that there was something strange…or something about her.  So, I have decided to tell you.  And don’t look over there at her when I tell you this.”

I said, “Okay.  So, what is it?”

And she said…she ain’t a she.

I know I said I wouldn’t look over in her direction…but my head spun around so quickly.  It was an automatic response.  I could not believe it.   I knew I had felt something was out of whack…but I never would have guessed it was that.

My friend immediately admonished me saying-

“I told you don’t look.  Don’t look.”

But I could not help but look.  In fact I was staring.  I had never experienced anything like that before.  It was adverse to me.

I thought that she was a woman and nothing could have prepared me for anything otherwise.

I told you I had been terribly naive…and to some degree still am.

That was at a time when I was heavily involved in gay life…hanging out…partying in clubs with women…and a member of Salsa Soul Sisters, Inc, in New York City.  My life is by no means like that now but there was a time…almost 25 years of my life when that is what I did.  Before that I was not sexually involved at all.

So, I had gone through grade school and college without any type of involvement.  Never dated boys in my life.

I was just different from most people and lived a highly sheltered life under the wings of my parents.

It was in Salsa Soul Sisters that I met this person whom I had introduced to my friend who had just moved to New Jersey from St. Louis.  Salsa was a lesbian organization…and I guess that is why I never would have guessed that this person had been anything other than a woman.

But this is the way it went…she was a guy who wanted to be a woman and then a lesbian.

When the Salsa Soul Sisters found out about this…every founding mother and everybody else stormed into Salsa one night…the record had to be set straight (no pun intented)…and they called an emergency meeting.  Where it was voted on that no biological male could ever become a board member of Salsa.  Because that was really the issue…not only did she want to become a woman and be a lesbian…but she also was nominated to run for a position on the board of directors of Salsa…and that of course was a no-no for any male…real or operated on…which at the time she was not.  And the Salsa Soul Sisters were not having it…not at all. 

You would have loved to have heard those women that night…it got pretty heated…and they were not playing.

In the end I felt sorry for him…because he was nice and had proven to be a good worker.  But my Salsa Soul Sisters were right…and I had to agree with them. 

Salsa was a black lesbian organization…the oldest in the world.  And through their years some very well known women, writers, artist of every type…and professional women and otherwise…etc… have walked through their doors…including Audrey Lorde, June Jordan and many many many others…all Salsa Soul Sisters.  Some very well known and widely read, and seen in media and all facets of the arts, performing and otherwise, as well as educators etc…all Salsa Soul Sisters.  Exceedingly, talented women.

It was hard for me to grasp why she…he would want to dress up as an woman and engage in sexual activity with women as a lesbian.  She was after all a man…by living his life as man…he would not have had any of the confusion that just knowing the story caused me and many of the other Salsa Soul Sisters.

And as much as they tried…tried to not say…many of those same women dated her…before and after that meeting.

There is much confusion in the world…and I am so glad to not have that type of confusion any longer.

I am so glad that God has reclaimed my life…and set me free from the bondage that once held me.

Perhaps as strange as I thought she was…she was not more strange than I was.   One thing is for certain we were both lost.  I don’t know about her or him today…but I have been set free.   And I walk in liberty.

But there is one thing though…I will leave a pocketbook like most people forget an umbrella…because I am not used to carrying one.   So, most of the time I don’t even bother with them…unless it is something like a bookbag…because I will walk off and leave it.   Smile…and even that too may become a thing of the past.

It is so good to be free.  I cannot thank the Lord enough…for saving me.

Have a good day…    and God bless….

Oh, yeah…another Chinese word.  wu bu dong ….  means I don’t understand… wu is Chinese for ‘I’.

It is pronounced …..woo boo dung.       So, it can be said either way… wu bu dong   or    bu dong  …meanding I don’t understand.

It has been raining most of the day and yesterday…but just as I was about to finish telling this story the ceiling started leaking.  I look at it as a sign that the devil just doesn’t want me to tell this story.  But I will tell it everywhere I go if need be…if it can encourage somebody or help someone else to find peace and deliverance in their life.  I’m going to tell it.

I am oh so thankful….for the chance to share it with you.

It is funny…but the moment I wrote that last paragraph the ceiling stopped leaking.  It is the power of God…to speak what he puts upon your heart to speak.  I know that this blog is going to touch someone in a special kind of way…and I am so happy to be able to speak life and truth into your life.  Be bless… ©2008

Add a comment July 24, 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

My day out… my Bible… and Chinese

Today while out and about, I noticed the gas prices at a couple of places.  It was at $3.99…not much difference from $4.08.

But psychologically speaking. 

It sure looks a lot better.

A couple of days ago I was out at the track.  Sometimes I just like to pull out there and sit in the car and read my Bible.

On this particular day, I ran into an old family and church friend with whom we had grown up with.  He shared with me a book he was reading. 

This book had to be about 2 1/2 inches in thickness.  It was a book on the Masons.

We have all heard of the Masons…but I never knew much about them as most of what they do is secret and kept among themselves.

But what was interesting about this book were the hand signals that were displayed in it.  The hand signals used by the Masons symbolizes some type of secret code…which of course this book explained along with everything else about the Masons.  But I was not about to read all that stuff. 

But those hand signals are the exact hand signals used by the rappers.  You’ve seen them in the music videos and at the music award shows flashing all kinds of hand signals.

Well, those hand signals come directly from the Masons.  Along with some other things called the hidden hand and the claw…which are all shown in this book which is full of pictures showing everybody and their brother using and flashing these various hand signs from generals to Presidents past and present.

But besides those hand signals, I couldn’t help but notice how much this person whom I had known for many years was taken with that book.  So much so that as I looked at that book and how thick it was…I couldn’t help but think that if it had been the Bible he probably wouldn’t have even opened it.  And here he was all goo-goo gah-gah over this book about the Masons as if it were some kind of wonderment.

Not to mention as he continued on and on…he eventually got around to mentioning how the Bible is a piece of manipulated junk.  Where of course we now had to go into a detailed conversation because I just could not allow that to go unchallenged.

But what made me feel bad for him was…that you cannot read all kinds of doctorine because it will confuse you.  And he was terribly confused…and I could clearly see it and definitely hear it.

There is no doctrine which has not pulled bits and pieces from the Bible…that in of itself should speak volumes for the merit of the Bible.   That everyone wants to draw from it…does ring a high degree of significance on its behalf.  

And the fact that they do pull from the Bible…and create all kinds of religions to fit whatever they want to do, practice and/or preach and teach…is indeed a fact.  From the Mormons to Catholicism, the Church of Scienctology, Islam, all those Eastern Religions etc…etc…all have taken wing from some section, practice or statement and/or statements found in the Bible.

As I listened to him, this person who had grown up in the same church I had, I just felt bad for him…as he talked to me getting excited as he told me how he spent $20 for some other book on something else.   He was getting all excited as though these books were leading him to some new found form of enlightment that gave him some strange form of euphoric ecstasy.

I don’t read many books…but I do spend time every day with one very special book which means an awful lot to me.  I search it out for understanding, wisdom, peace, guidance, even correction etc…etc…and it does that much and more for me.

Happy reading…and be sure to look out for my book, “THE BISHOP’S WIFE.”  

Remember I will tell you when and where you can purchase it just as soon as I straighten out my problems with the publisher.  I recently informed them that it would cost them more money than it would cost me if I had to take them to court.  I just don’t want to have to fly all the way to Florida to do it…but I’ll go if I have to.  And in Florida…in small claims you can sue for up to $5000…now that is a real incentive for all the aggravation that Xulon has caused me.

But I would really rather work it out…and I have them in the palm of my hand…it is not the other way around.  And if you would like to read that story you can check out my very first blog…under the section entitled “Self-Publishing.”   The story on how Xulon Publishing was planning on taking me for a ride…all the way to the bank. 

I’m finding myself having to take 3 to 4 showers per day with all this heat.  Can’t stand to get over-heated and sweaty.  But just imagine if we couldn’t shower as we would like to. 

People around the world are faced with exactly that…and even some right here in the United States.  People in the mountains of West Virginia have contaminated water…all of it…even their drinking water.  I saw once on PBS where somewhere in those mountains the water faucets in some mountain towns poured out mud.  That is right…mud…and they ran the  faucet to prove it.   Through the kitchen sink faucet and bathroom faucets…through all their plumbing. 

I couldn’t imagine living that way…or being forced to.  And even though bottled water seems pretty cheap…imagine trying to buy it for your everyday useages.  You won’t think it so cheap then…I am sure.  Imagine trying to buy enough water so you and your family could bathe with it…much less drink it, wash clothes and dishes with it…etc…

There is something about not having something which makes you desire it.  And you have a tendency to desire it all the more when it is not readily available to you.   

If we didn’t have fresh water…we would be desiring a cool drink of water.  And would be willing to pay any price to get it.  (kind of sounds like our current gas prices)

There are people who for one reason or another whose water or electric and/or gas may be shut off…meaning that if they have bath water it is ice cold.  And if they don’t have water, they can’t bathe or flush the toilet or have drinking water. 

We are blessed…but being blessed does not mean that we should not consider other people.  Consider them…and lets seek to make this a better place for all people.

I respect and love you.   Lets consider this planet and all that we are doing to ruin it.  Some day someone will look back and say-

“How come they didn’t do something?”

It’s a good time to think about trying to preserve this planet for those who will come after us…and for those suffering right now because of what we have already done. 

Thank you for reading.      ….God bless…and have a beautiful day.

These hot flashes are really getting the best of me.

I used to hear women talk about them…but never paid much attention to what they were saying.   But I understand now.   

They make all of this heat all the worst.   And ooooh….my nights.

My Chinese teacher told me that Chinese women do not get hot flashes…it has to with something they either eat or take…which I guess amounts to about the same thing.

Ni hao ma?

Yes, I do take Chinese…or rather took it for a few semesters.

And I just said ‘hello and how are you?’    Pronounced  “knee how ma?”  

Now, that was easy…wasn’t it?   ©2008

Add a comment July 23, 2008