Posted by: kitejockey | October 12, 2009

Faith That Offends

USA Today ran this article today slamming the faith of true Bible believing Christians. The basic premise of this article states that if you profess a belief that Jesus is the only way to heaven that you promote an “exclusiveness (that) sometimes morphs into a form of chauvinism and mistreatment of non-Christians”.

If you don’t stand for something then you will fall for anything:

If the numbers in this article are correct 65% of so called Christians are doing just that. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6 NKJV) If that sounds exclusive it is. If you say your are a Christian and you don’t believe this, you have missed the point. Yes, I am saying that I believe that faith in Jesus is the only way to escape Hell and too one day live forever with God. Yes, this is not what most people want to hear. Yes, it will cause division, it will make some angry and feel left out. But what is the point of having a belief system if you bow to pressure of those who don’t believe. Why believe anything if all you want to do is make everyone happy. The truth is the Gospel is offensive to the sinner. No one likes being told they might go to Hell if they don’t believe. I for one don’t blame people who gets upset with a true believer or the Gospel itself. But what kind of friend would I be if I let that stop me from sharing what I believe will save them from Hell? If I don’t at least try to witness to the salvation that I found in Jesus I am a heretic and do not have the love of God in me at all.

The way I see it is everyone has a belief system, even if they don’t think they do. The atheist who believes there is no God at all, the polytheist who believes there are many ways to God, the Muslim who believes all non-Muslims are infidels, and the agnostic who doesn’t really care if there is a God or not all have a belief system. They all take every opportunity to tell the rest of us just how wrong we are. They all operate from a place of intolerance in one form or another. So why is it that it is the Christian message of salvation and belief in one way to God is the one to come under constant fire. Well I am sure that some Bible scholar could write a text book on why this happens but I can give it to you in a nut shell and that is the truth hurts.

Men love darkness:

18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. (John 3:18-20, New King James Version)

It is natural to hate correction, to not want to be told that you are living wrong. In reality this is the core of the issue. Who wants to hear that they have wrong beliefs or that they are living in such a way that one day God is going to cast them into Hell? I suspect most people are offended by this and just don’t want to hear it. But if we as Christians don’t sound the alarm every chance we get then what good are we doing? Look you might not like our methods and you might think we are narrow-minded and intolerant, but we only preach Christ because we love you. If we did not love you we would just live and let live. We know going into this that you might not understand. We know too that you might just hate us for trying to reach you with the Gospel. But to the true believer it is more important to give you the truth even if it costs us everything. We also know that this is not our Gospel it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not responsible for the content but we will be held responsible by God if we don’t at least warn you. To the true Christian is it more important to be faithful to God than to have all the fame and fortune this world has to offer.  To a true believer in Christ the darkness is not to be feared or tolerated but it is to be shattered by the light of the Gospel at any cost.

The Gospel cuts to the bone:

11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:11-13, New King James Version)

It is through the preaching of the Gospel that man’s sins are exposed. It is no wonder why the rest of humanity has a vested interest in shutting us up. Our beliefs stand in direct opposition to the low standards that most live by and enjoy. The Gospel of Christ demands more of us than just to live and let live. It demands that we seek the Father’s will over our own. It asks us to sacrifice relationships, earthly treasure, and own desires in order to live in a right relationship with God.  It also demands that we proclaim to the world that great salvation that can only be gained through a relationship with Christ.

The Gospel asks the tough questions:

25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. (Matthew 16:25-27, New King James Version)

So what about it?  Are you willing to take your chances. To just write all of us true believers off as a bunch of Jesus Freaks and religious nut jobs or do you think this offensive Gospel is worth more investigation? It is really up to you what you do with this info. You can just keep on keeping on and hope that we are just crazy for believing such a narrow-minded exclusive ideology, but what if it is all true, what if what Jesus said about being the only way to the Father is in fact true. Are you comfortable with just walking away? You do know that this life is very short, don’t you? On average most of us will not make it much past 70 years. I know that might sound like a long time to you but compared to an eternity spent in torment it is just a vapor. Besides your life might just be required of you before this day is over. I plead with you don’t just dismiss this as another religious opinion piece. Don’t fall for the trap that USA Today tried to set for you in their article. They want you to believe that no matter what your belief system is that it is just as relevant as an other belief system, and that is simply a lie. You either accept Jesus and his Gospel or you are lost and without hope, and that my friends is the only truth that matters.

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Posted by: kitejockey | October 6, 2009

Yes, Dave, We All Know You Are Human

Recently most of those who listen to the news, read the paper, the internet, or watch TV found out that David Letterman had sexual relations with some of the female staff that have worked on his show. I think the way it came out was kind of fitting. He told the world about it as a way to thumbing his nose at someone who was trying to blackmail him for several million dollars. Honestly, I think even without the blackmail threat this would have eventually came out. It reminds me of something my pastor said a few weeks ago. He said “You think you are so smart. You think you can get away with it. But what you don’t know is that she will always tell, and if she doesn’t tell she will tell someone who will.” The point that he was making is the truth is going to come out. It might not come out right away but it is going to come out. You know this is some good information for any of us men who think we can get away with this sort of thing.

Anyway, tonight I watched the Late Show that I had recorded from last night. This was David’s first time on the show since admitting to his extra marital affairs. I do think he was somewhat embarrassed by this entire thing, but I am not sure if he was repentant. That is something that is going to have to be worked out between him and God. One thing that stuck with me from Monday’s show was something Steve Martin said to Dave. He said “Dave, at least we all know your human”. That is so true. Failure to live up to God’s standard is a very human thing to do. We all fail in little and big ways every day. While my natural inclination is to look down my nose at a man like Mr. Letterman I have to admit that I too fall short of God’s best all the time. I sin everyday, sometimes in little ways and sometimes in very big ways.

So before I pick up any stones to toss at David, I must first examine my own heart. I know that given the right set of circumstances I could very easily fall into this type of sin or even something worse. Evey day I have to get on my knees and beg God to forgive me of my sins and to give me the ability to resist the temptations of this life. I really do want to do the right thing in my heart, but my flesh is constantly warring against me. This battle to be a man of God and to not fall is summed up in a great song that was preformed by Audio Adrenalin. It is called “Man of God” listen to this song and read the lyrics and see if you agree with me that this is just how it is when you know you are only human:

Man of God (Lyrics):

Sometimes Im a liar sometimes Im a fake
Sometimes Im a hypocrite that everybody hates
Sometimes Im a poet sometimes Im a preacher
Sometimes I watch life go by sitting on the bleacher

But Ive never been left alone
In any problem that Ive known
Even though Im to blame
There were times when things were dark
And Ive been known to miss the mark
But someone fixed my aim

Sometimes Im a man of god
Sometimes Im alright
Sometimes I lay down close my eyes
And pray to god

Sometimes I dont feel good
Its hard to start the day
Its hard to climb the obstacles
That sometimes come my way
If I make it, Im a good man
Am I a bad man if I fail?
I know Im never good enough
So I let grace prevail

But Ive never been left alone
In any problem that Ive known
Even though Im to blame
There were times when things were dark
And Ive been known to miss the mark
But someone fixed my aim

Sometimes Im a man of god
Sometimes Im alright
Sometimes I lay down close my eyes
And pray to God Im ready for the night

This song sums me up pretty good. I know that failure is so close I can sometime smell it, and it smells like smoke. The world system, the Devil, and some so called friends can’t wait to see me crash and burn. But I still press on. I know that I am not perfect. I know that it is only by the grace of God that I have not cheated on my wife, killed someone in cold blood, or cursed God. But you know the thing is I know I am capable of it. We all are. In 1 Corinthians 10:12 the Bible warns “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”(KJV) It is best to know that you might fall and to believe you probably will. That way you will always be on guard. The best advice I can give you is to not waste time pointing fingers at men like David Letterman, instead your time would be better served by praying to God to help you stand, and then taking the time to pray for the rest of us including David Letterman.

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Posted by: kitejockey | September 20, 2009

Crazy Busy!

Well, the title says it all. I am crazy busy right now in every aspect of my life. At work I am working on several big projects, at home I have several irons in the fire including trying to finish a flooring project that I started in the early summer, trying to get a grip on some financial items, doing lots of computer work for others and myself, trying to find time for my five blogs, and volunteering with the Humane Society of Lincoln County a couple of nights a week. On top of all of this I am going to church regularly each weekend, taking in some local kite festivals, and traveling to see family. If you know me well you know this is how I like it. I love to be busy. But from time to time it does seem like a little much.

I love helping others so on top of what I am already doing I am squeezing in time to help some friends with items important to them. I don’t say that to toot my own horn because that is not why I do what I do. I help because it is one of my spiritual gifts. At least that is the way I like to think about it. My wife might say that I just don’t know when to say no. She might also say that I am spending too much time with others and not enough with her. If she said that I could hardly argue. I do feel guilty about this. But I have such a hard time with slowing down. I don’t even really know why. I think it is a trait I get from my mom and dad. Mom never saw anyone in need that she did not at least offer to help, and dad never saw a waking hour where he did not feel like he had to be doing something.

I really don’t want you to think I am complaining about all of this as I kind of enjoy the busyness. But I am learning to say no to some things. Lately I have had two different people, and neighbor and a coworker, try to recruit me into the same multilevel marketing company. I have told both no or at least not now. Not because I think their businesses wouldn’t make me a lot of money, but because right now I know I don’t want to take on anything else. Also I know that the next few months until the end of the year are going to be even wilder. I have two more kite festivals coming up, lots of pets to try to get adopted, and many many people needing computer help. So no complaints as a matter of fact it is just the opposite for me. I am glad to have so much to do. I am also glad to have had the opportunity over the last few months to meet so many new friends; both from doing computer repair and  from working with the Humane Society.

So if my wife will hang in there I promise things will settle down some after the first of the year, but what I hope she remembers is that some of the money I am making from some of the crazy extra work I am doing will hopefully be paying for a nice vacation for the two of us next year as we take a trip to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. You know I think we need a new tradition in this country. Instead of only giving a married couple money and gifts when they get hitched, why not give them lots and lots of money when they hit certain milestones like 20 years of wedded bliss. If this could be implemented then maybe hard working guys like me could take it a little easier instead of scrapping for every extra dime we can scoop up. Plus it would reward those that do the hard thing. See it is easy to get married, but it is a whole different thing to stay married. Just look at the stats most marriages don’t make it.  I know if it was not for God in our lives ours may have never have lasted as long as it has. Marriage is hard work and not for the faint of heart or the selfish. But I digress.

So if you feel slighted by me in the next few months, just know it is not because I don’t want to give you the time of day, or because I don’t care about you. It is probably just because I am crazy busy.

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Posted by: kitejockey | August 18, 2009

Read the Fine Print, or Else!

Most people get into a habit of tossing out junk mail and I am no exception. This stuff takes up way to much of my time. It seems like we get more junk mail than just about any other type. But don’t be too quick to toss all that stuff out because as I have found not everything that looks like junk mail is junk mail. Confused, well I think that is on purpose. You see some companies, I am convinced, want you to toss it all out without looking at it first. Lately I have been fortunate enough, or alert enough to catch two such pieces of so called junk mail before they made their way to that famous file 13.

You see my wife and I have been using certain accounts to pay down our debts for several years now. We were blessed when we moved to Charlotte to receive some very generous fixed low rate loan offers that we have used to transfer some of our debt into that has helped us leverage this debt quicker than we could have done on our own. Well over the course of the time that these companies that have offered us these great rates , from time to time they have made changes to their terms and conditions. With these changes have come one disclosure statement after another. Now I will admit I never read any of these word for word in the past, mostly I would just skim over them and then toss them. I don’t think I could give you any real details on what 99% of these notices contained. Most of them were changes in payment addresses or a change in late fees for those who pay late, which thank God has not been us so far.

Well all that changed in a big way two months ago. Fist came a letter explaining that one of our creditors had been bought out by a bigger more stable company. This did not concern me much as I had a relationship with both companies and the new one was better than the old one in my eyes. My only concern was that the deal that I had with the original lender not change. So far so good on that front, at least at first. A few weeks later and we received a change of terms notice. Again when these things come I usually scan them and then toss them. That is what I did this time. Now I don’t know why but the next day I decided to drag the change of terms paper out of the waste bin and take anther look at it. It had bugged me that some of the wording in the change of terms had included language about interest rate changes. They were almost doubling. Now most of the time when I saw something like this I did not phase me because after all we were locked in at a fixed rate, so I had nothing to worry about, right?

Wrong! As I took a closer look at the fine print I discovered that what I thought was a change in rate for late paying customers or new customers was going to be forced on all customers regardless of past agreements. I could not believe what I was reading. Well I immediately picked up the phone to get some clarification. After a few minutes of discussing this with customer service I came to the sickening realization that the deal I had, might not exist anymore and I was about to pay a lot more in interest than I was prepared to pay. Now I am not going to go into the legality of all of this and I am guessing that sometime in the near future you are going to hear of some class action law suites over this very thing because they were not picking on me, they were sending this out to all their new customers from the bank they just bought. What really upset me is if I had not went back and looked at it a second time I would have been completely caught off guard the very next month when the new statement arrived.

So what to do? How do you fight back when the big bank changes the rules. Well lucky for me I just asked a simple question of the customer service rep I spoke to. I asked is there anyway I can avoid being hit with the rate increase. To my surprise she said “Yes, but you will need to close this account, and never use it again, and never be late.” This was great news for me. We had not increased this line of credit at all almost from the time it was established, and further more, I had never been late, praise God. So I asked her to close the account for me, and she did. Hopefully that will be that and we will be able to pay it off without any more trouble.

Had this been the only situation like this I might have never thought much about it but the very next month I got another disclosure from one of my other lenders. This disclosure was not discarded. After what happened just the month before I read every jot and tittle of this one. It did not take me long to discover another big issue was about to descend upon my financial peace of mind quicker than you can say bankruptcy. This time the circumstances were similar in that we had had this account for a very long time and at a low fixed rate. It too was an account that we were using to pay down debt. But this change was different than the last. This time instead of doubling my rate, which I guess they could not do because I had never been late and the loan had not been sold like in the case of the first one, no this time they were going to more than double my monthly payment. Well as you can imagine, if you are like me and on a tight budget, this was very hard if not impossible to swallow. As a matter of fact if I did not get some sort of resolution quickly I was going to be facing the real possibility of bankruptcy.

Again I found myself on the phone with customer service. Again I asked them what could be done to keep me from having to pay this new payment that was more than twice what I was paying. They said basically the same thing that the other bank had said, but they added that they would work with me in an incredible way, but not before taking a look at my payment history. Again this is where I have been blessed. In the years that I have had this account I had never been as much as a day late and I always paid extra when I could. As it turns out this worked in my favor. The customer service rep said she could lower my rate (that’s right lower my rate) and this resulted in a savings for me of about $100 a month. Also she informed me that at this new rate and payment I would be able to pay this loan off in five years. I could not believe what I was hearing. Here I was ready to fight with them over these changes and fully prepared to have to get a bankruptcy attorney, to getting some very good news.  Not only that but I had another smaller loan with then and they did basically the same thing on this loan as well which saved me even more money.

Now things would have went much differently had I not read the fine print. So I beg you be on the look out for change notices from your creditors. It is very important that you look over these documents and not discard them. If banks and creditors will do this to a customer like me who so far has paid on time, what are they going to do to the customer that is late on occasion? Why are they making these changes in the first place? I suspect the economy is their most convenient excuse. The truth is just like the average consumer, these banks are over extended and in trouble themselves. They are looking for every angle they can, legal or not, to try to rectify the situation before the economy or the government or both forces them too. I don’ t think it is fair what happened to me at all, but that is why it pays to pay in cash and not get in over your head. After all the Bible says “The rich rules over the poor,And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” (Proverbs 22:7 NASB).

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Posted by: kitejockey | March 21, 2009

My Son

Today was a good day for me. I went out and flew kites with some of my friends and although I was missing my wife, as she is away visiting family it was mostly a good day. But as I am writing this I am having some strange thoughts and emotions run through my mind. For some reason today as I was packing my kites at the Lake Park Kite Festival I had a random thought pass through my mind. What would my life be like had Vicki and I had kids. More importantly what would I be doing with my child or children had we conceived?

I need to stop here for a minute and tell you that I almost did not write this post as I don’t want my sweet wife to think for one minute that I regret marrying her. She knows in her heart that I don’t entertain those type of thoughts. She also knows that I don’t blame her for not being able to give me children and that I know that this was God’s plan for us. I may not understand or agree with God’s plan in this part of my life, but I except it for what it is. I know too that just because we don’t have kids does not mean that we are not loved by our Savior. I did hesitate slightly before writing this but I felt that I needed to share from the heart. I love you Vicki, please never forget that.

So there I was packing my kite bag. I was getting ready to zip up the case that contains my Prism 3-D when a random thought hit me. What would it have been like to share a day like today with my son had I had one? What would he thought about what I do? Would he be right there beside me helping me pack my bag? Would he feel strange that his 41 year old dad was just a big kid himself? What memories would we share later about this day? The smell of the wet grass, the feel of the cool spring wind on the back of our necks, or the smiles on the faces of the spectators and other fliers as they watched us play with our colorful kite collection. What would he have learned from me today? Would he have learned how to play well with others? Would he know how important it is to love those around you as much as you love yourself? Would he have been proud of me when I went back to pick up the trash that some of my fellow fliers so careless left behind when they were done flying? Just what would he have learned?

Then the thought occurred to me what would I have learned from him? Just the fact that a son would be out spending the day with his dad has to be a precious thing. I know so many father and son teams that hardly ever spend any time together. Would he share my enthusiasm for the simple things in life, or would he merely go to humor me?

I would hope that if I had a son that he would love me and want to be with me. That we would see the world in somewhat the same way. I would not want him to be a perfect carbon copy of me, because I would never wish that on anyone, but I would hope  that we would have some of the same interests. I would hope I could teach him about God, and show him through my life how important it is to try to always please the Lord. I would want him to be well rounded, and unlike me, to place a high value on his education. I would hope that I would be a good teacher to him about what this life is all about. I also would hope that he would learn from my mistakes and from my failings so he would not be forced to repeat them. I would want him to not have to learn things the hard way, as I did.

I guess part of what got me thinking about such things was watching all the moms and dads at the park with their children. I was not jealous of them at all, but my only thought was what is it that they are passing on to their sons and daughters. You know even in the subtle things we say and do we teach our children something. What do you children learn from you when you don’t know they are looking or listening. Do you they hear you yelling obscenities at the car in front of you because they are not going fast enough or blocking your way? Do they hear you praying at night when you and your wife are in bed? Do they see and hear you doing things that you have told them not to do? Do they see daddy eyeing another woman when he thought no one was looking? These are the type of things that I have the luxury of pondering simply because I have no children. All these questions are hypothetical to me, but how about you? Do you have kids. If so how are you doing in these areas?

I know this post does not come close to detailing all the things a mother or a father must ponder as they raise their children. I also know that there  is no such thing as a perfect parent. I also know we are all in process. I just hope that if you are a parent and you are reading this that you understand that if you have not been the best example to your children that you can start today. No, you can not take back the times you have failed you children, but maybe you can start today to make a change for the better while you still have some influence with your children. If you don’t know where to start I would like to suggest you start be reading the Bible with them and Praying with them on a daily basis. I know it sounds old fasion and a bit cleche but I think there is some truth in the fact that the family who prays together stays together. I would hope that if I had a son I would teach him that lesson first.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not perfect nor do I feel that I am a subject matter expert. Oh, and I feel like I have a long way to go before anyone would want to use me as an example of a Godly man, but I do think of these things and ponder them in my heart. I hope that something that I wrote here will challenge and inspire you to want to be the best person you can be if not for your kids, for the kids of others who are watching you. We owe it to the next generation to be a better people than even we think we can be, and we can only do that by walking with God daily.

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Posted by: kitejockey | February 17, 2009

Tea Party Anyone?

So Mr. Obama is going to sign the “stimulus” package today and save us all. GIVE ME A FLIPPIN’ BREAK! Actually he is not the first and he will more than likely not be the last to toss good money (or in this case borrowed money) after bad. I just don’t get it. Why would anyone in their right mind think the government can solve this “crisis”. Are we all so dumb that we can not see what is happening right around us or are we so apathetic that we just don’t care.  Look when you live in a capitalist country you are going to have successes and failures. That is the nature of the capitalist system. When you start hearing things like “so and so is too big to fail” and the words “government bail out” look out because the next words you are going to hear are socialized or nationalized________(fill in the blank). Well it is not too late to stop socialism from taking over but there is not much time left. Capitalism is headed for an early grave.

We now know that once government gets it greedy little hands on a formally capitalistic institution like a bank that things are going to get nutty. Case in point the salary cap for CEO’s. Does Mr. Obama really think this is going to fix anything. This is only going to make things worse. When you cap the pay for those at the top it has a trickle down effect. If a CEO only makes $500,000 a year then the VPs that work under him are only going to make $300K to $400k. The folks below them will make even less and the folks below them will make even less and so on and so forth until the guy at the bottom (me and you) make way less than we do now or be out of a job all together. How is that supposed to fix the economy?

Also do we really want the government running “private” businesses. I mean look at the great job they have done with this country. Gosh they have got everything running so efficiently and we have lots of money in reserves for things like social security and medicare and Medicaid. Wow I am so impressed. They never waste a dime and have always looked after the best interest of the American people. Everything the government touches turns to gold. Oh, and the ethics and the morals of those in elected office are of the highest order. They never lie, cheat on their spouses, or their taxes. They never take bribes and they are above reproach. Wow why didn’t we think of this sooner, of course the government can fix everything. After all unlike most businesses if they run out of money they can always print more. Why shouldn’t we have socialized and nationalized everything. What are we waiting for utopia awaits!

In reality things are not going to turn out well. I will say that for a short amount of time (maybe a few weeks) things are going to look like they are going to turn around. The money from the stimulus package may actually buy us a little time. But in the end I am afraid that once the money is gone (and it will not take long) that we are going to be back in bad shape but next time it will be even worse. We are going to be in more debt than this country has ever seen. Business all over this country are going to continue to fail one right after another. More people are going to loose their jobs and the next time the government will not be able to buy its way out of a wet paper bag. We are headed right into national bankruptcy and the idiots are leading the parade. The sad thing is I don’t think they know just what they are doing to this country. They think they have the answer but they lack the foresight to see the errors of their ways.

It disturbs me too that the American people are not fed up with all this crap. That they are not protesting this monumental brain fart that the government is selling us. Well if the American people are missing it somehow, the rest of the world is not. You would think if this stimulus package was such a good idea that markets all over the world would be rallying behind it with support. You would think that investors world wide would be chomping at the bit for a piece of the action. But that is not what is happening at all. When this so called stimulus package was passed investor confidence world wide took a huge dip. It is funny that the rest of the world see this for what it is. It is the death of capitalism and soon the free market system.

So how do we reverse this. Well I don’t pretend to have all the answers but here are a few things that I would suggest for the short term for all you potential bail out I mean stimulus recipients:

  1. If you are a business owner large or small, never take government money. This will allow you to make your own decisions about how and when you invest your money. You will not have to worry about salary caps or big brother interference (other than some of the stupid laws that you are already dealing with). If you business is failing then find a better business model, or reorganize so you can start making money again. But what ever you do don’t take cash from Uncle Sam, there is always a string attached.
  2. Quit making the same widget if  it is not selling. Move on and keep up with the times. I don’t care if your great, great, great, great, grand father came up with the widget maybe people in 2009 just don’t need it anymore.
  3. If your CEO mismanages the company fire him or her. Don’t let one idiot run the whole thing into the ground.
  4. Modernize your operations so you can produce quality. The adage is true you have to spend money to make money. If you keep producing crappy products sooner or latter people are going to figure this out and stop buying from you.
  5. Quit sending American jobs overseas. If we are to survive in this global market we need to be strong at home first. That means hiring Americans and paying them a fair wage so they can better afford to buy your widget and which in return will lead to stronger sale figures for you. We are one of the biggest consumer markets in the world but this is quickly changing because Americans no longer can afford to buy even the cheep imports you keep sending over here from countries like China because the job they once had that let them buy this stuff is now being done by a 13 year old in a factory in Beijing. American families can not survive on Wal-Mart greeter salaries.

In the long run we need to elect better leaders and toss the bums out of Washington. I went to school to be a teacher and I have heard it said that there are those who can and those who teach. To some extent this is true. You would never ask an economics teacher with no cooperate training to take on a job as a CEO of a major fortune 500 company so why do we elect folks who have never been successful or even tested in private business to run a capitalist country. We need to look at how we pick our leadership. The leaders we choose should be the most successful and resourceful among us. We should never vote for someone who wants to be a career politician. We need term limits of four years max for every public servant. I would love to see the entire governing body from the fed level to the state and local turn over completely every four years. No one should every make their carrier as a politician. They should get into office do their job and get out. If we could find a way to turn our leadership over every four years I think we would see a much more efficient government. Their would not be time for corruption to grow (as much) and the government would have to be light on its feet in order to get anything done. There would not be time or room for so much bureaucracy. Politicians would know that there is a price to pay for screwing up. Because when their term is over they have to go back to the private sector and find a job. If the screw up to bad they may not have a job to come back to. We need a way to fire those that don’t preform and quickly fill vacancies. So every position would have a runner up. A person that was second in the election who could step in and do the job if the elected one can not cut the mustard. We need a ban on lobbying. We have representatives in Washington we don’t need a group of people who were not elected trying to influence our representatives to do their bidding.

Basically  we need to rethink our government from the top down. What we have now is not working. Not only do they not represent us, instead of listening to the desires of the American people, they spend most of their time trying to figure out how they can exert more and more control over every little thing we do. It is time for a tea party Boston Style.

Keep the "Change"

Keep the "Change"

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Posted in Political, rant

Posted by: kitejockey | January 12, 2009

Pet Peeve/email

It has been a long while since I have taken the time to blog anything. To be honest since I have discovered Facebook and Twiter I have done very little other social networking or blogging. I am really enjoying meeting and keeping up with friends and family on Facebook and Twiter and really wish more of my friends and family were on these sites (hint). That is, at least in part, why I am writing this post.

I can remember a time not so long ago when email was my main way of keeping up with distant friends and family. When I first started using email in the mid to late 90’s I found it to be a great way to stay in touch and to give and receive useful information. As time has gone by email has for me lost some of it’s appeal mainly because I get so much of it and unfortunately 80%-90% of it is not useful information. You all know what I am talking about. It can be summed up in one big ugly word SPAM!

Spam in and of it’s self is bad enough when it is from someone you don’t know. Because it tends to clutter up your inbox and slow down your attempt to get to the really important stuff. Over the years I have developed a callous on my delete key finger from all that spam. But thank God that for the most part I have got it under control. Most of it never even makes it to my inbox any more. But what do you do when the spam is from your friends or family?  Well I can tell you what I used to do, I used to try to read it all out of a guilty and twisted sense that I owed it to the sender to read what they had sent me. But that just left me tired and disappointed most of the time. I then moved to the next stage of handling spam from known sources and that was to tell the spammer to quit spamming me or else! Well I said it nicer than that and most of them got the message, but still a few persist.

What gets me is that some of these folks don’t have anything better to do than to read the spam that they get and then forward it on to me which I get only because the sender is in my address book and is a trusted sender. So in effect it is like I don’t have a spam filter at all. I mean come on, are some of my friends and family getting paid to send me spam, cause that it what it feels like sometimes. What is slightly less annoying is those who read something that they deem as Earth shattering or life changing for them and then feel compelled to send it to almost every one in their address book. Not that some of this is bad or not interesting but do they ever think that there might be a better way of sharing without filling up the inboxes of everyone they know. I hate to call this spamming but I don’t have another term that comes close to telling you how this makes me feel.

Well now that I have made some of you mad because I am not sensitive to your way of thinking let me take it a step further. GET A BLOG. After all I would not want to point out a problem without giving a solution. Welcome to what has become  one of the hottest ways to communicate with large groups of people in the last ten years.  I would suggest that if you have some tasty nuggets that you just can’t keep to yourself that you start a personal blog and then invite your contact list to see it. In this way folks can pick and choose if they want to read your latest revelation or pass.  If you do this I cannot promise you that everyone will read what you have to say, but what I can tell you is that those who are interested will. As a added bonus you may actually gain some new friends (and or enemies) from the world wide web.  Either way your friends and family will appreciate it and you will no longer have to wonder if they are reading what you send via email any longer or just trashing it all like I do.  You will be doing your part to bring peace to unknown numbers of email inboxes.

For more on how to avoide spamming people by email or if you just want a good set of rulles to follow when thinking that you just have to send that email click here to to to Seth’s Blog and an atricle he wrote called “How to send a personal email“. How did I hear about Seth? I found his blog in Google Reader. The “How to send a personal email” blog post was sharred with me by a friend on Google Reader. If you don’t have a Google Reader account yet I would suggest you get one. This is yet another great way to share items with out cluttering up someones inbox.

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Posted by: kitejockey | December 31, 2008

Your Bank Account

To those few of you who read my blog I am so sorry I have not posted anything in a while. I will try to do better in the near future. For now I am going to post a story that I hope you find interesting. The story below was sent to me from a friend. I can’t tell you if it is true or not but the moral message of the story is one that inspired me. I hope you benefit from reading this as I did.

YOUR BANK ACCOUNT

This is AWESOME….something we should all remember.

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud
man, who is fully dressed each morning by
eight o’clock, with his hair fashionably
combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is
legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.
His wife of 70 years recently passed away,
making the move necessary. After many hours of
waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing
home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I
provided a visual description of his tiny
room, including the eyelet sheets that had
been hung on his window.

‘I love it,’ he stated with the enthusiasm of
an eight-year-old having just been presented
with a new puppy.

‘Mr. Jones, you haven’t seen the room; just wait.’

‘That doesn’t have anything to do with it,’ he replied…

‘ Happiness is something you decide on ahead
of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t
depend on how the furniture is arranged ..
it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided
to love it ‘It’s a decision I make every
morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can
spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty
I have with the parts of my body that no
longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful
for the ones that do.

Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes
open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the
happy memories I’ve stored away. Just for this
time in my life.

Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw
from what you’ve put in.

So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot
of happiness in the bank account of memories!
Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank.
I am still depositing.’ Remember the five
simple rules to be happy:

1.. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

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Posted by: kitejockey | November 26, 2008

Mass Email Issue

For a long time now I have been warning folks that it is not a good practice to send your friends email in mass because of privacy concerns when you have several email address in the “To” field or in the “CC” field. Today I got an email from a friend of mine warning of another danger in distributing mass emails. Please read this email below and I hope you find it as eye opening as I did.

Please remember if you send this on to your fiends please put their email address in the “BCC” (blind carbon copy) field.

When emails say: “if I don’t get this back I’ll…. or, “See how many flowers you can get back”, or ” Forward this to 10 people in the next 5 minutes or something bad will happen to you”, etc., etc.

Advice from Snopes. com

1) Any time you see an E-Mail that says forward this on to ‘10′ of your friends, sign this petition, or you’ll get bad luck, good luck, or whatever, it almost always has an E-Mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and E-Mails of those folks you forward to. The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of ‘active’ E-Mails to use in SPAM E-Mails, or sell to other spammers.

2) Almost all E-Mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of E-Mail is, is a way to get names and ‘cookie ‘ tracking information for telemarketers and spammers – - to validate active E-Mail accounts for their own profitable purposes.

You can do your friends and family members a GREAT favor by sending the information in this email to them; you will be providing a service to your friends, and will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam E-Mails in the future!

If you have been sending out (FORWARDING) the above kinds of E-Mail, now you know why you get so much SPAM!

Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name(s) to those types of listings regardless how inviting they might sound! You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT in the long run. Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later! Plus, we are helping the spammers get rich!

Also: E-Mail petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other organization. To be acceptable, petitions must have a signed signature and full address of the person signing the petition.

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Posted by: kitejockey | November 25, 2008

Need to laugh? Read on…

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, ‘If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?’

Bud looks a t the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, ‘Sure, Why not?’

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany.

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, ‘You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.’

‘That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,’ says Bud.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then Bud says to the young man, ‘Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?’

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, ‘Okay, why not?’

‘You’re a Congressman for the U.S.Government’, says Bud.

‘Wow! That’s correct,’ says the yuppie, ‘but how did you guess that?’

‘No guessing required.’ answered the cowboy. ‘You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don’t know a thing about cows… this is a herd of sheep…

Now give me back my dog.

Note: This was sent to me today in an email. I do not know who the writer was. I just thought it was funny.

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