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.

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.

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.

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.

She paid me without hesitation. We did not talk about money and she just took the money out and handed it to me. I did not count it in front of her but counted it on my way out the door and was happy to find she had given me the agreed apon amount.

One interesting side note was one of her coworkers stopped me on the way out the door and said can I talk to you about a computer problem. What was funny she did not want to talk to me in front of the lady who just paid me. So she asked me to step outside to discuss her issue. I don’t know yet if she really wanted help or was just testing me to see if I would give her the same deal. I guess I will find out later if she calls me.

The folks who know me know that I give a good deal to the people who ask me for help. If I was not doing this as a hobby I would have to charge much more. They get a good deal because I do not do this full time and I get a little extra cash to help meet my obligations from time to time.

Foxy at 40

Today is the day. You know that big day in a woman’s life when she wakes up to realize she is not a just a cute little girl anymore. She is now a full fledged Foxy Mama. At least in my opinion. The first real thing I said to my wife this morning after taking my shower [by the way nothing I say in the mornings before my shower should ever count or be held against me] was how does it feel to be foxy, forty. No that was not the result of some sort of brain malfunction or early morning tongue trouble, it was a carefully planed out phrase meant to show her that no mater how old she thinks she is, that age does not, in my mind, diminish beauty. If anything she gets more beautiful to me as time goes by,in many ways, not the least of which is physically. I also took time to thank God this morning for my wife. I am so grateful that He has given me more than a mate. He has given me a best friend. She looks past so many of my flaws and loves me, not despite who I am but, because of who she knows I could be. She may not know it but her belief in me, despite all my screw ups, is what keeps me going most days. Yes, like any couple we have had our ups and downs, but we have got through them because of our belief in God and our strong love for each other. I truly am a lucky blessed guy. So sweet heart, I just want to tell the world how much you mean to me. I feel so very grateful to have had the blessing of getting to know you over the past twenty three years. I can not think of another person on this Earth that I want to spend that kind of time with. I hope that one day we can look back and give God praise again for another twenty three years, and when that time comes you will still be my foxy best friend. I love you and hope that in the days ahead I can show you just how much.

What I want to know is what would happen in this neighborhood if a white kid paraded around the neighborhood in an Oboma mask screaming at cars as they drove by saying “McCain, McCain, McCain, don’t vote for the black dude” while at the same time the kids parents and friends were standing around the house laughing their butts off.  How would you feel about that? I would hope that you would be outraged and for good reason. That type of display is both racist and offensive.

Well we witnesses something just as offensive today. A young black child was dressed up in a McCain mask and screaming at cars as they drove by saying “Oboma, Oboma, Oboma, don’t vote for the old white dude”  as his family and friends stood around the house laughing their butts off.

We did not feel that it was our place to put a stop to this, however, we were shocked, not so much by what the young man was doing, but that the adults that were watching were not only laughing about it, but encouraging him. I wounder how these same adults would feel if we had done the same but in reverse? I’ll bet they would not be so accommodating.

In this time in our country’s history where so much of what is going on has people on the edge already something like this is not only offensive but potentially dangerous. We don’t need this sort of thing not now, not ever. I personally don’t have a problem with someone making fun of either candidate in an appropriate setting, but there are some that would take great issue with this and it could start a problem that none of us want to see. As adults we have to be more responsible, especially when children are involved. if you like one candidate over another that is fine and you should feel free to tell your children who you are voting for and why. But you should also be teaching your children how to be respectful of others, especially those that they disagree with.

Despite what popular culture and the news media may tell us, the world is not going to come to an end no matter who gets in office. The biggest threat to our  nation is not who our next leader might be but what will become of us if we cannot learn to live with each other in the good times and the bad. That all starts with being a good neighbor.

My wife says I am to quick to write people and companies off these days. For the most part she is correct. But not in this case. Over the last six years I have one frustrating contact with Dell after another. Most recently they messed up on an order that I place for an item over 16 days ago. The details of this debacle and my frustrated email to Dell customer service can be read below:

“I am not happy at all with the level of customer service I am receiving from Dell on my order. My first order of this product was returned by DHL to Dell for insufficient address information. I was not contacted by DHL about this issue because Dell did not provide DHL with my phone number which Dell has on file.

When I contacted your customer service department this morning they apologized and said that they would send out a replacement order to me. The agent I talked to confirmed my shipping address and said that the address I gave him was the same address they had on the first order. I asked him to be sure to put my phone number on this replacement shipment so if the shipping company had any questions about the address that they could contact me.

After I placed the replacement order I called DHL to see what address Dell gave them for the original order. They said that what they had was this:

Eddie Sprouse

Huntersville Road #383

3611-204 Mt. Holly

Charlotte, NC 28216

What they should have had and what Dell says they had which is:

Eddie Sprouse

3611-204 Mt. Holly-Huntersville Rod

#383

Charlotte, NC 28216

I don’t know why or how Dell changed the address before sending this package to DHL. All I can think of is that Dell uses some type of address correction software that matches the address that customers give with what the US Postal Service Recognizes. What ever the reason THIS SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING.

After I called DHL I called Dell back to tell them that I wanted to change the address on the replacement order. I was informed that this could not be done even though I had just placed the replacement order not 5 or 10 minutes ago. So now I am left waiting again for a shipment that I may never get. I even tried to cancel the replacement order so I could place the order again with another address and again I was told that I could not do this.

I have had problems with Dell customer service in the past and to be honest I use to recommend your company to those I know that want to buy a computer, but sadly I can no longer do this. You customer service is so bad, inflexible, and un-American that I would hate to recommend your company to anyone that I know.

I know that my concerns will be as quickly dismissed as my questions to your customer service department were; I guess I just wanted someone at Dell to know how I feel even if I get ignored. One thing that you all should realize is that your customers want and deserve better service than this. I know that in the past year your stock prices have fell by more than half and I guess you have many more lessons to learn before this company can be turned around. You should start by providing better customer service.”

Oh, I could give you many more reasons not to buy from Dell but in an effort not to bore you completely, I will pass. I just thought some of you would sympathize with my situation and appreciate this heads up on customer service at Dell.   I will try to update this later to let you know how Dell responds to my concerns or if in deed I do or do not get my shipment.

By that way I may be letting my prejudice against foreign customer service call centers impede my judgment, but you know when I call a company that has a US headquarters, I expect to speak to an American. The fact that all three calls were sent over seas did not help my attitude in this situation.

]]> http://kitejockey.net/2008/09/29/why-dell-inc-will-no-longer-get-my-business-a-rant/feed/ 5 kitejockey http://kitejockey.net/2008/09/18/video-of-abber/ http://kitejockey.net/2008/09/18/video-of-abber/#comments Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:11:44 +0000 kitejockey http://kitejockey.wordpress.com/?p=137 ]]> This is a video I decovered while going through some old computer files the last few days. As some of you know we lost Abber in January of 2007 due to the effects of old age. Abber was 20. This video was taken two years before we lost him. It was great to see him play.

Click here to watch the video.