I have no business sense. I can execute what is required (to a certain degree), but setting up the parameters is a different story. I've noticed that a lot of business is mostly marketing. What is marketing? The best definition of the word marketing is from www.m-w.com "the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service" ok - marketing is all good and fine. Nothing wrong with it - at least in and of itself. It's how you go about producing opportunity to make money. Not a big deal. But not all marketing is truthful. In fact, the more I read ads, watch commercials on TV, etc... I find that marketing has become an acceptable means to mislead and basically lie to the consumer about a product. If this were not true, why would we need companies like 'Consumer Reports' which tests all kinds of things to make sure it does the very thing it's advertised for... For instance, look at the movie "Phone Booth." That movie looked decent enough from the commercials - it made me want to watch it. So I rented it. I only watched half of the movie. I have a question now. Why do you need to make half the dialogue explitives? Wow - I could have muted the movie and still picked out the story line. The story line rotted anyway. There wasn't much to it. It was like Titanic or Speed - what can you do with such a specific circumstance? All of a sudden all of life revolves around a ship, or bus or a phone booth??? That's ludicrous. Yes, the marketing did catch my attention for 'The Phone Booth", but that's as far as it went. You see - that's why I couldn't be a promoter of something b/c I seek after the truth too much. I couldn't allow an item to be advertized in such a way that it misled the consumer. After all, the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. That's why companies mislead and even lie to consumers - b/c it works. I never said marketing doesn't work (to prove it works - I rented 'Phone Booth' and I like buying drinks that are blue...). All I'm saying is the major modes of marketing is just unethical - but you know, no one will take a stand and make it stop. Why? b/c it makes money. People buy stuff. It's a vicious cycle. oh well. Nothing I can do, right? bah....

< rant > There are pros & cons to being a technician. For one, they are a dime a dozen, and for the other, they are a dime a dozen. Anyone can be a technician. Actually, a technician doesn't have too much marketability. Take me for instance. I have noone knocking at my door b/c of my uber technical skilz. Technicians are usually the grunts of the company. "Here, take this apart and find out what's wrong with it" or "There's nothing to do today, get me coffee". Technicians are also the people that are least appreciated. When was the last time the CEO came by and said, 'Hey! You're doing a superb job! Let me take you out to lunch!' or "Here's $50 to take your wife out to dinner." It doesn't happen. Since Technicians are at the bottom of the totem pole, there's no way a company would allow them to be a Net Admin. "Yeah right, you're taking our server apart!" or "You're not working on our corporate website, you'd try taking it apart... You can take things apart and troubleshoot, but you're not smart enough to code our site." You can also tell a Technician is least appreciated due to the pay the company gives you. Have you ever heard of someone say "Wow! Look at the pay a Technician gets! I wanna be a Technician!" Ok - You may be saying, "Try to learn other skills and market those to help you find a better job." Let's think about that for a moment.... Don't you think if I had the opp to do so, I would ?? You may say, "It's a matter of priority - get your priorities straight" ok - priorities - good point! umm... something else to think about... 1. I have a job - technical work - So I need to focus on doing that better. 2. Wife/Family - It takes a lot of time to meet the needs of the wife/fam - I will not neglect her/them to pursue glory and honor in my career. 3. Church/Youth Group/etc... 4. House/Home (the thing you live in) - Lots to do around the house - wow - never ending 5. All the travelling I do? hehe - refer to point number 2. < /rant > ok - I know there are faulty reasons, logic behind what I've just said. But do I get my point across? It's not so simple to learn something knew in the time I have in order to market myself better to get a higher paying job so I can provide for the fam more effectively. Yes, it would have been easier to learn something new/better a few years ago when I was single, but I'm talking about now! Believe me, I'm trying to learn some new things (new to me, anyway), but learning those things takes time - and time I don't have much of. Besides, technical work is not my passion. It pays the bills. It's something I enjoy doing. My first passion is Youth Work - Youth Pastoring - a Pastor for your teenagers. So with that in mind, I don't have even more time. Why? b/c I also have to take time to read books, study, etc... to keep my 'skilz' sharp in being a good Youth Sponsor, Youth Pastor. Anyway, I hope you see the delimma. It's actually discouraging when I see my friends embarking on new opps b/c of the skill set they have. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for them. But you know - I have to remind myself (daily) that God has placed me where I am. And for that, I'm thankful. I don't want a skill set that I can't use where God has me. errr.... better stated - although it is good to have unused skills (b/c you don't know when you'll use them), it's a waste if you're not using them. :) Don't get me wrong - I am trying. It's a slow process. Difficult at times. But I must also remind myself that I should not look for man's approval/acceptance - who cares about what a person thinks? What matters is what God thinks. Period. The one thing I must remind myself of is: "I am more sinful than I ever imagined, but more accepted than I can ever dare dream" It doesn't matter that I don't have the exact marketing skills everyone thinks I should have - "Do website development - it's easy!" or "Learn SQL - you'll get a good job then!" or even "Learn database administration" or something like that. Believe me, I'll try something new, but don't look down at me b/c I don't have the skill sets you think I should have. Don't feel sorry for me b/c I am redeeming the time for the things that are actually my priority - not someone else's priority. Now why did I say all of this? Because I'm frustrated with my position. It is an outpouring of my frustration. Not with any one thing, but in life in general. Don't look at me like that - you do it too at times. I just happen to put it in writing. What I have written may not make total sense - so what? This is where the Gospel is soooo good to us! It reminds us that I do not need man's approval for anything b/c I have all of the approval and acceptance from God. 'enough said.

Business people are rude - Part II Gak! I just got off the phone with Tom X. ugh - he's usually a decent guy to talk to, but as I answered, he had me conferenced in with someone else - errr... actually the other person's phone was busy so we had hold music. What in the world? That was just rude - on many counts. 1. He did not ask if he could conference in someone else. 2. I could not hear him very well b/c of the hold music - and the annoying hold 'voice' kept interrupting every 15 seconds. 3. He kept talking while the stupid hold 'voice' was talking. 4. He kept pressing buttons on the phone to have the phone system try the extension again. ugh - Is there anyone who has good business practices? Good Business Practices 1. Be polite - I can't stress this enough. Canadians, take note! 2. Ask if you can conference in someone. 3. Tell the technician (or whoever) what the issue is before you ask to conference in someone. 4. Don't put people on hold to answer another call - let those 2nd calls go to voicemail. 5. Putting people on hold is ok IF you ask AND you are looking up information for that person. 6. Be prepared! Have an Account Number (if needed), Serial Number (if needed), etc... (any information that may be needed to help execute your request. It is rude not to be prepared. ok - I'm finished - for now. You get the picture.

Business people are rude. I work in the technical services arena - Point of Sale equipment specifically - all over the phone. I deal with all kinds of problems from "what cable goes from 'X' model scanner to a 'P' model terminal/PC" to "My thermal printer is wrinkling the ribbon very badly." You see a lot of weird stuff out there. There are some really cheap people out there - they want to buy a $50 scanner that can not only scan their barcodes, but they also want it to call a cab & make them breakfast each morning. Read my words - NOT GONNA HAPPEN I have also talked to a wide variety of people - from Canadians, Good ol' Boys from the South, to Aussie's, to you name it. I have seen a few characteristics of each 'group' of people. Canadians are the worst to deal with. I don't apologize for that statement. I can think of two people that are generally very cordial, and you can even joke around with them. Mike is one of my fav Canadians. But I must admit when I first began dealing with him, he was the worst. Over time he learned that you don't have to be belligereant every time you call. Mike is the exception to this rule. I love talking to Aussie's. They're just great. I love their accent - it ROCKS! They are always polite. Now there are a few Americans I talk to that make my skin crawl every time I hear their voice. Kim comes to mind. Wow - she knows nothing, she thinks she knows stuff (but doesn't), and she puts you down if she senses any hesitation in your voice as you try to answer her question. Kim is not a fav around here - at all. As far as the rudeness factor goes, there are lots of people that call us up and no more than 5 seconds into the conversation (case in point - Janet just called and put me on hold for a few moments) they ask if they can put us on hold. Ok - have you ever heard of doing one thing at a time? (Which this brings me to Call Waiting - it's technology that allows us to be RUDE!). We have growned accustomed to multi-tasking. What is multi-tasking? Doing 2 or more tasks simulteneously (ideally - simultaneously, but more realistically one at a time in successive order). If you're talking to someone on the phone (and it's important info for YOU), let the other call go. People can wait. Why should I trump what I am doing with one person to do something with another - during that same time period? These 'Mom & Pop' shops that I talk to - oh my. They can't even spend $35 (plus tax) to buy an answering machine. If you can't buy a cheap thing as an answering machine, how are you staying in business? Blasted Bottom Dweller!! Have you ever heard of voicemail? Isn't that what it's for? When I am not available (i.e. talking to the first person who calls me), then the person can go to my voicemail and I will return the call when I am through. There are exceptions - like when my wife calls - she trumps all ya'll including the Pope - even twice on Sundays. But the exceptions have become the rule - what's up with that?? Don't be rude! Make sense? This ain't rocket science folks! Treat each other with the respect due. When talking to someone, put your total attention to it - don't multi-task. I reserve the right to post more on this topic :)

Well folks, I have no more inet access at home. If you must know, I was using Charter Pipeline. That service is decent (in and of itself), but the company has lots of problems. Shall I make a list? Glad you asked.... 1. Their billing rots. They actually owe me $120+ dollars because of me moving from our apartment to our new home. They keep telling us they can't transfer the $$ to our new account and they can't send us a check - umm... hello!! 2. If you were to call about an issue one day, and then call again one day after that (or even a week later), they will most likely not have record of your previous call(s). This happened numerous times. 3. They do not do their job. A friend of mine (Allen) left his apartment 2 months ago. He called to have the service disconnected, but guess what is still active (and thereby Allen is being charged for)? They told him they don't want to send someone to disconnect that single account. Ummm... let me translate: "I don't want to do my job!! 4. Another friend of mine was cancelling Charter. He purposely did not give them his forwarding address. He specifically asked them 'Am I caught up on payments with you?' - They in turn told him 'yes' - but lo and behold, they somehow got his new address and started sending him ficticious bills for amounts of money he did not owe. To have some fun, I conferenced my wife in on my conversation with the guy from Charter. We played good cop (my wife)/bad cop (me)....errr.. sorta... I then cited to him a couple of the above plus I told him that Charter's left hand has no clue what the right hand is doing. Do you want to know what he most likely put in his notes? "Customer unsatisfied with quality of service" - bah.... I'm going with Direct TV - sometime soon. Right now we're enjoying the silence that can only happen when you don't have cable :) hehe bah!

Before you read the rest of this post, please read this article: Hi-tech babble baffles many.
I see a specific fault in this article: Grammar
What's up with that? Point in case: "Even people who knew about technology where baffled by some words. Only a third knew what a DVR was. " What do they mean?
Do they mean 'people who knew about technology' are located somewhere, and we have to look for them?
Or do they mean 'baffling words are where 'people who knew about technology' are?
This sentence should read: "Even people who knew about technology were baffled by some words..." Another example is this sentence: "The study did offer are some signs of hope for the technology industry. "
Either they left a word or three out or they started saying one thing and halfway through their sentence, they decided to say something else. This sentence should read (if I'm reading it correctly): "The study did offer some signs of hope for the technology industry." Grammar folks. Read what you post. Everyone does it at one time or another (although some more than others :)). I even had an incorrectly spelled word on this very blog! - but of course, it's corrected thanks to Jeremy B. There are times that I will post something, but I'll read it again and again until I am satisfied it's error free. It may be a day or two before something is corrected, but at least I correct what's wrong. Blogs are different than published works - as from the above cited article from the BBC. Blogs show a glimpse of every day life, thinking, opinions, education (or lack thereof), etc... Published works such as the above cited BBC article should be error free - period. 'nough said....

While I'm in a posting mood, I think I'll finally write my take on Hulk. That was just an intense movie. I don't think there was one time that I thought the Hulk was fake. He was huge; probably 12 feet tall, I think. Although, overall, I liked the movie, I do have a couple gripes about it. 1. The first 3/4 of the movie was just a psychological thriller IF you can call a child seeing his mother murdered a psychological thriller. That was just stupid. What really was weird is the dad (David Banner). What a lunatic! We still don't know why he went off the deep end. You could tell the lunatic-ness of David Banner was put into the movie so the Hulk would have a nemesis. Can't these guys come up with anything original? So what if his pet project was stopped - it was still a 'we need something for filler so the Hulk can have someone to fight' kinda thing.... 2. The first 3/4 of the movie was too slow. They could have compacted that hour and half into a half hour. They also should have majored on the major part of the movie and minored on the minor part, instead of minoring on the major and majoring on the minor. :) Ok, gripes over. I could go on, but now on to the good stuff... I loved how Bruce Banner Hulked out. That just rocked. He was massive. It was a good thing they kept the movie as close to the comic book as possible. The TV show had its place. That was a good show, but not for today's audience. The movie definitely needed the comic book feel. You must view this movie from the comic book perspective. If you've never read the comic book, go read it before you watch the movie. The fight with the abnormally large dogs was cool. Very intense. Those dogs never gave up. Let me just say Betty would have gotten Pwn3d! ouchy. The ending was sorta hokey, but it was still in the comic book vein. But I do like the last part in the Amazon. Very funny. The one misnomer for the Hulk is labeling him as a 'Superhero'. He's not. In all truthfulness, he's a freak. He's someone accidentally created. Granted, he became a type of superhero later on in his adventures, but not in the beginning. He hadn't a clue what was going on in the beginning. So do not classify the Hulk movie as a superhero movie. It's a movie about a Comic Book character. period. Anyway, that's my take on it.

Happy 4th of July! Wow - it was a good one. We spent some time with a few friends: Allen & Karen V, Jeremy H, Jeremy B, John & Ginger S, & Crystal. We all went swimming at the neighborhood pool - pretty nice pool, too! Then we went back to John & Ginger's place and ate more food. I love eating food - any kind really - fun stuff. We then pulled out the fireworks. Now, that was fun! Nothing better than eating brats, hamburgers, and picnic-type food and blowing things up. One of the fireworks (of which I'm not sure what kind it was) shot something into the air then fell on its side facing the crowd (it was aimed at the front door of the house) and began shooting some more. One of the shots grazed Ginger and it slammed into the front door. It was scary, but quite funny. Nothing like blowing things up and throwing some unexpected danger into the mix :)

Southern Drivers - Part II Since I'm on the topic of Southern Drivers, let me tell you the true story of a woman who was driving while using her cell phone! Carrie (my wife) and I were on our way to do some errands. We got on Haywood Road (ok it was Edwards Rd - which is the same as Haywood < that's another thing - who gives one road 4+ names?? > and this girl was on my bumper the whole time while talking on her cell phone! ugh... blasted driver! You could tell she had no clue what was going on. I stepped on my brake a couple times to let her know she was too close (she could have nudged me and introduced herself, she was so close!). ok - while we're on the safety issue, how can you talk on a cell phone and still be cautious while driving??? This chick was no where near safe - nor cautious. In fact, she was in a hurry - so I decided I'd go slower than normal! If you want to get close to my bumper, I'll make it even easier for you! With pleasure! When we finally got onto a 4 lane road, this chick sped up and passed us. The funny thing was we pulled up right next to her at the next stop light - ahhh... the Great Equalizer! hehe - blasted female...errr... I mean Southern Driver! doh!

Southern Drivers.... What is it about Southern Drivers? ugh... they are so unpredictable! err... actually, they are predictable... sorta... < rant > ok... There are so many people who have new cars. But my question is, did they forget to install the turn signal??? I get behind these people that never use their turn signal. All of a sudden they mysteriously begin slowing down. "What are they doing??!!" I exclaim! Then to my chagrin, they turn! No warning - nothing! ugh... Then, there's those people that use their turn signal all too much! Have you seen someone just lollygagging (I love that word!) down the road with their turn signal on, and yet they do not turn??? "Ugh..." I exclaim, "What are they doing????" - abso-stinkin'-lutely nothing! Hello! Let's think about others for a change folks! I've noticed these drivers think they own the road! Hey, let me give you a hint - it's a public area! There are other people around. There's a misconception that people are selfish. I disagree. Did you know there's something far worse than selfishness? That far worse something is "Self-Involvement". Let me explain... Selfishness - Implementing disregard toward others. Self-Involvement - "There are other people??!!?" Get the picture? People drive like they are the only one's on the road. There's no regard for anyone but his or herself. The safety factor has dramatically declined. If you don't let people know what you are doing, then they don't know how to react properly when you do something stupid. And believe me, these people do something stupid all the time! Can I be any clearer? Do you get my point? You've seen exactly what I'm talking about. It happens every day; multiple times a day! Get a clue < /rant > ahhh... I feel better - sorta....

I am finally jumping off the deep end and doing my own blog. What is my blog going to be about? My opinions, thoughts, considerations, ponderings, blah, blah, blah, and oh yeah, some of the topics that get me on my soap box. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride because you won't know where I'll take you.