A Quote to Ponder

"...when you're screwing up and nobody's saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up. And that's the lesson that stuck with me my whole life. Is that when you see yourself doing something badly and nobody's bothering to tell you anymore, that's a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care."

Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture (2007)

www.cmu.edu/randyslecture

Not a Good Samaritan

Luke 10:30-37:

"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who
stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half-dead. Now by chance a
priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other
side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on
the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when
he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring
on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and
took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the
innkeeper, saying 'take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay
you when I come back.'"

That is how it should have gone down, but this is really what happened:




SO, I have graduated from a well-established private University and have obtained my studies in an area that is in great demand. Being that I am a Type A, I began interviewing for jobs 3 months prior to graduation and was offered the position THREE MONTHS BEFORE GRADUATION. In order to begin working, I have to have a temporary license issued by the state. So I diligently took care of all of the paper work, and upon the nearing of graduation, I sent it off to the state so that a file was opened and the process started.



I knew that it would be about 4 weeks before I could start working, and I made sure I contacted the State to ensure that I had not missed a step. Then a few weeks after the packet was mailed, I receive a letter stating that they are missing items. I call and they confirm that they have all the required components as of 2 weeks earlier, BUT because they are barely confirming this over the phone NOW I will have to wait 4 - 6 weeks from the time of the call.



Two weeks pass and I am not making any headway with the state; therefore, I drive several hundred miles to the state capitol. They take my name and tell me that they already told me over the phone what date I could expect to be issued a license, AND that they can't tell me where we are in the process.



I go home, sit tight for 2 more weeks, begin to exhaust the last of my savings, AND THEN receive the ultimate smack in the face. In early June the FBI advised the state that my fingerprints were not readable.



A 3rd call is made with the following questions:

• Why wasn't I advised of this 2 weeks ago when I was in your office?



• Why wasn't I advised of this 4 weeks ago when I called your office?



• What kind of time frame are we looking at once I get reprinted?

THE STATE says that they don't know why they never told me, and that it will take another 10 -30 days before they issue a license, and that they just realized I had another license with them and they failed to tell me that I did not need new fingerprints from the get go.

Needless to say, I had to suck it up before they bent me over again for one last SCREW....then I cried. Sitting, not desiring to leave the house, take calls, or....whatever (not even finish the sentence).

ENOUGH!

So, I live incredibly close to a cemetary.

On Friday morning, 7 am to be exact, a female parks her SUV, turns up the Spanish music (the kind you play when you are drunk), and begins to clean her car! After cleaning her car, she sets out a lawn chair, but does not sit in it. Instead, she lays out in the grass next to an overly decorated grave. Who does this?!!!! Obviously someone who has no discretion, right?

The maintenance men are on the property, so I assume that the facility is open and call to make a complaint. Mind you, this is not the first time that I have complained about these patrons who party weekly on this grave site. From 7am - 830am I get the business answering service who cannot do anything but take a message. In a mad rush, I finish getting ready and drive over to the office to make a complaint. I am greeted by two snotty, entry-level secretaries who are bothered at the fact at the first words out of my mouth are "I would like to speak with a manager please."

They respond by sending me a grounds keeper supervisor, and I follow by stating my reason for my business (e.g. the neighbors are tired of the loud music, parties, and garbage in our yards on account of these patrons; AND this is one of many complaints that has not been resolved). This towering man responds by stating that I NEED TO CALL THE POLICE because it is not their problem. In response to his attempt to side step responsibility I retort:

"So you are telling me that the actions that are conducted on your
company's property are not your responsibillity? You are telling me that
you are not accountable for maintaning the integrity of this nieghborhood,
correct? Are there not noise abatement laws that your business is
responsible for adhering to should your conduct effect those in your
vicinity?"

With a perplexed look on his face, he stated that he would address the issue promptly and that I was welcome to contact him anytime.

Needless to say, I have had enough! Enough of the side-stepping of responsibility. Enough of those who have never been raised to have consideration for others. AND enough of keeping my mouth shut so that I assertive confrontation is avoided.

Pure Insanity

As the fire, here is the latest thing that I would like to 'burn' and bring back to its simplest form. I mean, where have the days gone when family is a support mechanism and not a 'co-dependent' relationship? I live in a world where all of the characters are the Queen of Hearts, and some one is a subordinate to someone else; therefore, there is no compromise.

So a girl sends me a text saying she is marrying a guy from a far off land and her sibling is irate. Invitation or sympathy outreach? I wasn't able to decode the meaning either, so as a defense mechanism (uh, in an effort to not react), I respond with "Let me know when you are moving so I can say goodbye." Rude or clever? I really don't care what you think, it's my issue, I just like to ponder another person's means of dealing with the situation. My reasons are mine, pretty much meaning it is not my problem to take ownership of.

Then I get a call from a Woman asking to pick up a child for lunch from school. The child is given fast food meals everyday so how can I argue with an established routine, right? Anywho, the woman on the other line has poor health and is huffing and puffing because she is caring for her brother who is ill, and she is also in a rush to get to the hospital to care for another gentleman who is in the advanced stages of a degenerative disease. All the while, this child's father had come from across town to pick up the child's younger sibling at the same school.

THEN the Woman invites my spouse and I for dinner; however, we must be there early because a boy would like dinner by a certain hour, AND an Elderly Man is expecting her to arrive that evening to prepare his dinner and settle him in for bed. (I declined the invitation even though I know how much it means to the Woman that I join her.)

I truly do feel bad about the whole situation (running around rampant and the Woman not being physically well herself), but I can't change how things are. It is what it is, So I am here, waiting on the world to change...

The Many Adventures of Berdoo

So here is how they would like you to see it:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/imageviewer.asp?ean=9780738555812

But this is the reality of it and how it will be remembered:

An Excerpt by Sam Quiniones, LA Times (June 29, 2008)

www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deadprez29-2008jun29,0,5220060,full.story

"They grew up together...Nobody ever anticipated this."The story ... is a tale of neighborhood bonds torn apart by power, betrayal and greed... 'You grow up with somebody 15 or 20 years and he
tries to kill you,...Something's wrong there.' San Bernardino's West Side is a flatland of wooden houses, small markets and vacant lots that has always been separate from the rest of the city.

The Santa Fe railroad, built in the late 1800s, divided the West Side from downtown. In the 1960s, the 215 Freeway, with offramps only heading east, 'strangled the business district here, which was
extremely active,' said Esther Estrada, a city councilwoman who grew up in the neighborhood. But the West Side hung in.Santa Fe's train repair shop employed more than 1,000 people, most of them West Siders. Men also worked at Kaiser Steel's factory in Fontana, or at Norton Air Force base.

Yet the neighborhood united against outside threats.

In 1983, the school district moved to close Pacific High School. The West Side loved the school. Barrio kids anchored its top-flight wrestling team... But the district prevailed, and the school closed.

Then in 1984, Kaiser Steel closed, laying off dozens of neighborhood men. In 1992, Norton Air Force Base also closed, taking 10,000 jobs. Then, Santa Fe Railroad took its shop and a thousand
jobs to Topeka, Kan.

New drugs arrived in the barrio.

In the early 1980s... 'the thing that really destroyed a lot of families was PCP' -- an animal tranquilizer that makes humans impervious to pain.

Crack came in the late 1980s. Kids dealing dope replaced men with union jobs.

Youths stopped dancing to form gang cliques and feud over street corners. Families fleeing the L.A. gang-and-crack nightmare brought more of it to San Bernardino.

Violence skyrocketed. Many West Side youths went to prison...

New immigrants began moving in. They took the menial jobs that neighborhood youths had counted as theirs. Old-time Mexican American families felt invaded."

So in my pursuit for something greater, I have resolved that this is not a place I would seek out FOR ANYTHING WHAT-SO-EVER.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

YOU'LL SEE!!!