Dumping My Debt / Memoirs Of A Paperboy

I have been delivering early morning newspapers for about 2 1/2 years now. Not just one, but 3. Am I insane? You bet I am! Alas, there is reason behind this madness. One day, a Proverbial Anvil was thrown at my head. And ooh-boy!, did it hurt something... my ego, my pride, and several other things that I thought made me "a man". It knocked me down for the count. When I came to, the harsh realization that I have spent my entire life mis-managing my finances finally hit home. I had always thought, "It will all work itself out in the end..." Well, the end came and I found myself so over my head in debt.
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Sure, I would've gone down the road that led to filing Bankruptcy (as I know many people who have), but I decided that if I was going to be a statistic, I'd rather be included with those who owned up to what they did...to themselves. I wanted to take charge of my finances and my life, I wanted to claw my way out of this hole that I ultimately buried myself into.
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Its easy to blame a financial mess on the loss of a job, a spouse, the President of the United States of America, etc... Its kind of like a child who goes to his first day of kindergarten. His parents tried to prepare him for this next step in his life, but the child never took it serious. This child is too excited about playtime to notice that he has wet his pants...and is laughed at by all of the other kids. Well is this kid going to keeping messing his pants or take measures to make sure it doesn't happen again?
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With "Memoirs Of A Paperboy", I am going to attempt to "psycho-analyze" myself and my situation. Take a hard look at how and why I ended up in this financial mess. What I have learned, what I am doing about it...and well, talk about flingin' newspapers in the early morning hours. The Good, The Bad, and the Dreadfully Ugly.
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I pray this is therapeutic for me. I hope that at the end of this, I can look back with my head held high...and of course click my heals together and scream out a loud "WOOT!"
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"w00t" was originally an trunicated expression common among players of Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role-playing game for "Wow, loot!" Thus the term passed into the net-culture where it thrived in video game communities and lost its original meaning and is used simply as a term of excitement.
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May you read this and be inspired to get your finances in order. May we all teach our children while they are young, so they do not grow up with hopes and aspirations of being...a Paperboy.

Trying To Revive A Dead Holiday

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Thanksgiving is coming upon as once again. And once again my wife and I get into the annual discussion of where we are going to spend this Holiday of giving thanks. In the 16 years we have been married, this has been by far at the top of the list of my least favorite topic of conversations. And I guess it is something that needs to be address on a yearly basis. If memory serves me correctly, and it probably does not, we started off in our marriage rotating Thanksgiving destinations. One year, we would visit her family, the next mine, and so on.

This is where my memory gets a bit sketchy. Many years or so ago, we were to partake of the bird and all its fixings with my family. For one reason or another, maybe I was feeling overworked at the time, I didn't want to make the drive. This in turn upset my wife’s mother in law. Blame was pointed at my wife as the reason we weren't going. I was unsuccessful convincing my Mother, that it was I that didn't want to travel, and it had nothing to do with my wife. Many regrettable words were said, and Thanksgiving has never been the same since. It seems the entire Holiday would be better swept under the rug and forgotten about completely. But that would be impossible. Each year to follow I knew the inevitable topic of the Pilgrim Buffet would arise, and that there was no way around it. Sometimes we’d go to here family, some mine. One year we actually had it at our own house and invited a few from both parties, the In-laws and the Out-laws.

The holiday became so stressful; I think we lost sight of why we celebrate thanksgiving. I’d like to think we still had much to be thankful for…but egos in the way, we never were able to express it.

Anyway, this year…when the discussion came up. I decided to just say, “Whatever you would like to do, I am good.” My wife insisted that I tell her what it was that I really wanted to do and she did not want to hear what I thought she wanted to hear. I said again, “Really, whatever you want to do, I am good with.” I think that even upset her more. The thing is, I have grown tired of this. Bottom line, it just did not matter to me anymore. All I want is for the tension around Thanksgiving to cease. To me, it does not matter where I am; I just want to be with my wife and kids.

So…the conversation continued. My wife pressed further, I finally said…”Sure, I’d like to see my family…blah, blah, blah…” What she was waiting to hear was not what she wanted to hear…and I had begun to fear of the response I was about to get, and I quickly had to interject, “But honestly sweetheart, it really does not matter. I just want to be with you and the kids.”

And from the sidelines, the flags were thrown onto the field. The referees, our two children quietly, sounded off. “Let’s just stay home, and do some things together.” My wife had always said she wanted to start our own traditions. I have always agreed. But we had never taken the time to begin…because we spent so much time talking about where we were going to go.

So this year, we are staying home. We are going to cook a turkey with some funky glaze my wife found on someone’s blog. We are going to eat heartily and finish it off with some pie. Possibly we will put up a tree and some Christmas lights. This year we are going to be home for Thanksgiving, as a family.

We do have plenty to be thankful for…we have each other.

Have A Wonderful Thanksgiving

We get Thanksgiving about half right.

We count our blessings, and we feel thankful, but beyond that we miss the point.

We recognize that things are going pretty good for us, and that we’re very lucky, but we typically lack the honesty or maturity to see much beyond that.

We know to say thanks, but we don’t know to whom. Ask yourself: If Thanksgiving is about giving thanks, who exactly are we giving thanks to?

We forget that the phrase “thank you” has a pronoun in it that makes a specific reference. We thank, we just tend not to thank anyone in particular.

And that’s sort of pointless.

So let’s review the basics.

The fourth Thursday in November is celebrated in the United States as a day of thanksgiving to God.

This is a religious holiday.

Not pronounced such by any church, but declared so by the state.

That’s right. This is the day the government sets aside for us to express gratitude to God for the blessings of our life. It is a part of our heritage, our culture and our law.

We, following the example of the Pilgrims and the Founding Fathers, acknowledge officially that our prosperity, our liberty, our talents and our very lives are all gifts from God.

At least that’s what we’re supposed to do.

Though usually we don’t. Usually we cut out the God part. Usually we morph Thanksgiving into a simplistic reflection that amounts to nothing more than, “Gee, isn’t my life great.”

Which is not the point.

This isn’t national inventory day. It’s not a time to tabulate exactly how fortunate we have been, to add up the ledger of Easy Street.

At least it’s not a time to do those things by themselves.

Because if we do, they end up being mere exercises in egocentrism and selfishness. They end up being about us.

And Thanksgiving isn’t about us.

It’s about God.

And about the fact that every good thing in our lives flows from his hand. It’s about the fact that we are sustained day to day, given breath and life, and prospered on our way by the specific and unearned blessing of God.

It’s about the fact that even those things which come by the sweat of our brow come to us from the bounty of God.

And this holiday is about acknowledging that fact and expressing it. As individuals, families and as a society, on this holiday we point to the hand of God in our lives and confess it.

In a world where people are ranked by and boast of their treasures and possessions, this day is a reminder and an admission that it is not us. It is Him.

And that the reliance on him is elemental to our existence, no matter our material or emotional treasure.

Today and for years we have celebrated in a time of plenty. But it was not always so. In the Great Depression, as homes were lost and unemployment exploded and the economy tottered, they gave thanks to God.

In the Second World War, as gold stars went up in window after window, they gave thanks to God.

And at the first Thanksgiving, as the new Americans approached a winter that would freeze or starve many of them to death, they gave thanks to God.

Because they knew that, even as they suffered and faced reversals, they were held in the provident hand of a loving God. They trusted in his care and they accepted their fates. They built lives of faith, in joy or sorrow, sun or rain.

And so should we.

And the first step is to remember the pronoun, and how that short little sentence can move from the implied to the specific.

“Thank you,” in this context, is, “Thank you, God.” “Thank you” must be said to someone, it must have an object.

Just like our lives.

And God, in both cases, is that object.

This is the consummate American holiday. It features our foods – turkey, squash, cranberries, potatoes – and our recreations – football and parades. All are native to America.

It also includes our native bluntness about religion. In a country founded not by those in search of empire, but by those in search of religious freedom, thanking God is our birthright.

And our privilege and duty.

So count your blessings. Everything that beautifies and brings delight to your life. The joys and the sorrows. Everything that has bettered or strengthened you.

And realize where they came from.

And say, “Thank you.”

To God.

That’s what this holiday is about.

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Source: Bob Lonsberry

http://www.570knrs.com/pages/bobs_blog.html

Saving The House Where Superman Was Born

What do you think of when you hear the name Superman? Is it George Reeves, from the old black and white Superman TV series from the 50's? Or, Christopher Reeves from the Big Screen in the 80's? Dean Cain from the TV series Louis and Clark which came out in the early 90's? The cartoons seen on TV from way long ago up to present day? Perhaps Tom Welling from the TV series Smallville which is currently in its 8th season. There are even plenty of songs we all might associate with Superman. There are way too many to list, but you could Google "songs about superman", and you should be able to find plenty you didn't even know existed.

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I was listening to talk radio not too long ago, and came across an interview with Brad Meltzer. He was talking briefly about a website, ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com and saving the house where Superman was born. It was pretty interesting.

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"The house where Google was created is saved. The farm where Hewlett Packard was founded is preserved. And Richard Nixon’s house is a museum. But the house where Superman — one of the world’s most recognized heroes — was created? It’s a wreck. So, with the creation of The Siegel & Shuster Society, we hope to raise enough money to repair the house and make sure it will be saved, restored, and there so you can take your kids one day." Watch the video...

You can read the entire story here...

I am Clark Kent, I am Superman!!!

I saw Twilight

I went to see Twilight Friday night. Having never read the books, I went with no expectations...well, maybe I had one. I wanted to see some FANG action. Even if only for 2 seconds.

Surrounded in a darkened theater by a multitudes of female teens and their mothers, and constant scores of "tee-hee's" and "oh he is so cute", I didn't know if I'd survive.

I will watch absolutely anything if there are vampires in it. Good or Bad, I have a curiosity to see how Vampires are portrayed as it seems to be constantly changing. Will the sun kill them or not, does holy water work, do they drain their victims dry....I, uh...didn't really get any of that.

All of my hopes aside, for what it is worth, the movie was good for what is was. And seeing the numbers "$" from the box office over the weekend, I'd say the movie studio brought home the bank.

All I wanted was to see was at least 2 seconds of fangs, and all I got was glitter...seriously. There was one moment when a "bad vampire" got his head ripped off, but it was in the back ground of the scene and blurred out. The director successfully got the point across of what was happening...but I wanted and needed to see more...yes I am a sick individual. Vampire movies are supposed to be sexy...this was just sappy.

I am sure there will be a sequel. Will I go see it? You betcha!

my memorable movie moment...

Edward: What am I?

Edward: Say it!!!

Edward: Say it!!!

Edward: Say it!!!

(this went on forever...ugh)

Bella: Vampire...

And thats my 2 cents...

Disney Geneticists Debut New Child Stars

Over the past couple of years plus, I have had some serious Disney overload. Some may say that I have been a victim of Brainwashing, or have been assimilated as The Borg might have done in Star Trek. I see it, as an awakening of sorts. I will share more in the near future about what it is I am talking about in the category, "My World Of Disney". For now enjoy this clip I came across, "Disney Geneticists Debut New Child Stars ". Its rather funny...

Source: The Onion

I Black

I'm going to post email forwards that clutter up my inbox...Why you ask? So you don't have to forward these types of emails to your family and friends and clutter up their inbox as well. You can just send them a link to my blog :P...

.I have received this first one, "I Black" by several people saying it had originated from several different places. One said it came from a cowboy from Arizona, another said it came from some philosopher somewhere, but the one I tend to believe as it makes the most sense is that...It was written by an African-American kid and was nominated for best poem of 2005. It's origination doesn't matter as the message is very clear...

"I Black"

When I born, I Black

When I grow up, I Black

When I go in Sun, I Black

When I cold, I Black

When I scared, I Black

When I Sick, I Black

And when I die, I still Black...

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And you white fella,

When you born, you Pink

When you grow up, you are White

When you go in Sun, you Red

When you cold, you Blue

When you scared, you Yellow

When you sick, you Green

And when you die, you Gray...

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And you calling me Colored???

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