WWYD

Imagine you are driving in your car and you see a person on the side of the road lying down and hurt.  You pull over and try to help.  The person speaks no English at all, he is speaking Spanish.  Do you a) make sure he is not illegal alien before calling 911 or b) Do you just call 911 and stay with him until help arrives?  When 99% of the population is confronted with this, I would hope that everyone would help a person regardless of creed/gender.  However, when you are sitting at home and rationalizing helping another human being, people turn conservative. 

A girl and a dog

Some say every boy needs a dog.  My girl would disagree with you.

Happy Halloween!

A conversation with an 8 year old.

Daughter – Dad, M…. asked me to be his girlfriend.

Me – Bey, you are way too young for that.

Daughter – I KNOW dad.

Me – He is a nice boy, be good friends with him.

Daughter – Yes, he did not ask me in human anyway.

Me – Huh?

Daughter – He told someone to tell me.

Me – Oh, he did not ask in person?

Daughter – That’s what I said.

Reading…

Dan Brown’s books are unpredictable.  I hated Digital Fortress, loved The DaVinci Code.  I thought the Deception Point was monotonous @ best but Angels and Demons was fantastic.

The Lost Symbol follows this pattern.  It’s mediocre but still entertaining.  It’s way longer than it needed to be;  500+ pages that could have easily been written in 400 pages.  There are entire chapters that were written for screen play as if Dan Brown is already thinking about his movie sale for the book.  I am kind of getting tired of the damsel in distress girl in every one of his books.  I think this books suffers the same fate that Night Shyamalan suffered after his movie Sixth Sense.  It’s not easy living up to super successful release.

To me, this book reads like an apology to his Christian audience after heaping abuse on the church in Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code.

Some of the science is out there again.  Noetic science reads like the Scientologist crap that some people would like you to believe.  However, I can weed my way through the bullshit the same way I do with all of the CSI shows, it’s meant to be entertaining.

And in the end, this book is still entertaining.

Dan Brown’s books are unpredictable.  I hated Digital Fortress, loved The DaVinci Code.  I thought the Deception Point was monotonous @ best but Angels and Demons was fantastic.

The Lost Symbol follows this pattern.  It’s mediocre but still entertaining.  It’s way longer than it needed to be;  500+ pages that could have easily been written in 400 pages.  There are entire chapters that were written for screen play as if Dan Brown is already thinking about his movie sale for the book.  I am kind of getting tired of the damsel in distress girl in every one of his books.  I think this book suffers the same fate that Night Shyamalan suffered after his movie Sixth Sense.  It’s not easy living up to a super successful release.

To me, this book reads like an apology to his Christian audience after heaping abuse on the church in Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code.

Some of the science is out there again.  Noetic science reads like the Scientologist crap that some people would like you to believe.  However, I can weed my way through the bullshit the same way I do with all of the CSI shows, it’s meant to be entertaining.

And in the end, this book is still entertaining.

Somewhere in Arkansas…

The help

I’ve been complaining about not finding a book that I enjoyed reading for at least a year.  Honestly, I can’t remember the last fiction I read that I enjoyed…  Maybe the Alchemist but even that was just OK compared to The Help.

I loved every page of this book.  I loved it so much that I stretched reading this book into an entire Month affair.  I read the last page and kept reading it…  Read the notes after it ended.  It is now in my top 10 books of all time.  Give it some time and I might even say top 3.

I am not going to say things like “this book is about human suffering, and triumph” or “it’s sad, happy and heart wrenching”…  It is all of that but that’s just the how things were in the 60’s of Mississippi.  It’s about bigotry and ignorance that was normal and accepted in the 60s.

There are a lot of white people hating black people in this book.  After all this is Jackson MS, and the time and the place provides enough hatred to get the story started.  There is a “liberal” person in the book that launches the story.  Skeeter is a white college graduate who one day decides to write a book about the plight of the colored Help every affluent white family has in their house.  She befriends Aibeleen and Minny, 2 colored ladies who help her write this book.

The book is told from each of these ladies’ perspective in their own vernacular.  It’s this flow of language that makes this book an instant classic for me.  I loved reading the book in the 60’s black dialect.  It’s funny, original, and real.

I found it fascinating that people really did hate another race enough to scare themselves with things like “catching a disease from the bathroom if a black person used it” or “having a separate hospital for colored people” because they carried different diseases.  Yet, all these maids raised white people’s kids every day.  The stories of these white kids and how much they loved their nannies
never dawned on people that people are born color blind.

There is a part of this book where Aibeleen hears her white lady tell the little kid about how the baby should no longer use the same bathroom as the colored people.  Aibeleen does not get mad that the mom is a bigot.  She is sad that this little girl that she loves so much will someday start to believe what her mom is teaching her.  There is a point she says that every baby starts to believe her momma and she wants to stop it.

If you have not read this book run and get  copy today.

I’ve been complaining about not finding a book that I enjoyed reading for at least a year.  Honestly, I can’t remember the last fiction I read that I enjoyed…  Maybe the Alchemist but even that was just OK compared to The Help.

I loved every page of this book.  I loved it so much that I stretched reading this book into an entire Month affair.  I read the last page and kept reading it…  Read the notes after it ended.  It is now in my top 10 books of all time.  Give it some time and I might even say top 3.

I am not going to say things like “this book is about human suffering, and triumph” or “it’s sad, happy and heart wrenching”…  It is all of that but that’s just the how things were in the 60’s of Mississippi.  It’s about bigotry and ignorance that was normal and accepted in the 60s.

There are a lot of white people hating black people in this book.  After all this is Jackson MS, and the time and the place provides enough hatred to get the story started.  There is a “liberal” person in the book that launches the story.  Skeeter is a white college graduate who one day decides to write a book about the plight of the colored Help every affluent white family has in their house.  She befriends Aibeleen and Minny, 2 colored ladies who help her write this book.

The book is told from each of these ladies’ perspective in their own vernacular.  It’s this flow of language that makes this book an instant classic for me.  I loved reading the book in the 60’s black dialect.  It’s funny, original, and real.

I found it fascinating that people really did hate another race enough to scare themselves with things like “catching a disease from the bathroom if a black person used it” or “having a separate hospital for colored people” because they carried different diseases.  Yet, all these maids raised white people’s kids every day.  The stories of these white kids and how much they loved their nannies never dawned on people that people are born color blind.

There is a part of this book where Aibeleen hears her white lady tell the little kid about how the baby should no longer use the same bathroom as the colored people.  Aibeleen does not get mad that the mom is a bigot.  She is sad that this little girl that she loves so much will someday start to believe what her mom is teaching her.  There is a point she says that every baby starts to believe her momma and she wants to stop it.

If you have not read this book run and get  copy today.

While at it, check out the Jim Crow laws.

Somewhere in Arkansas…

I am ashamed

There is a new series that started last night called “More to Love”.  It’s a spin off from the show “The bachelor” but the difference is this show disrupts the typical beautiful skinny people.  This show is for the “big” girls.

My first instinct when I saw the trailers was “this is bullshit” followed by an “I’ve got to watch it”.  As I watched the show while eating my dessert (see the irony here?), my opinion did not change.  The problem with these so called reality shows about marriage and finding your true love is not about how they humiliate the women, it’s the fact that they make these romance and love claims while the guy is having a great time with each of the girls.

This is not what makes this show unique though.  It goes even further to humiliate the women.  More to Love is different because the girls are fat!  When I use the word fat, I mean it as an adjective and as a pejorative or a derogatory term.  Most of the girls are very insecure about how they look and they are open about their insecurities.  They cry during most of their interviews and one-on-ones.  Most of them have never had a second date.

The show feeds on these emotions.  It’s cruel watching these women getting rejected again because you know out of 20, 19 of them will get rejected again.  Years of tears are unleashed on this show.

Take 20 very insecure fat women.

Put them in a candlelit room, poolside chats, flowers everywhere, champagne bottles flowing left and right.

The guy gives each one a huge diamond ring called “the promise ring” (GAG!)  Most of these girls have never received a ring from a man before.

They are ecstatic for getting this ring.

As the show nears its end, the host tells the women “return the rings please”

If this is not cruel, I don’t know what is.  The drawn out ritual at the end of the show is fantastic and morbid. 20 women who just received a ring now wait to get it back.

It’s going to be a great show!  I can’t wait for the fighting to start. (And yes, I am ashamed of myself)

There is a new series that started last night called “More to Love”.  It’s a spin off from the show “The bachelor” but the difference is this show disrupts the typical beautiful skinny people.  This show is for the “big” girls.

My first instinct when I saw the trailers was “this is bullshit” followed by an “I’ve got to watch it”.  As I watched the show while eating my dessert (see the irony here?), my opinion did not change.  The problem with these so called reality shows about marriage and finding your true love is not about how they humiliate the women, it’s the fact that they make these romance and love claims while the guy is having a great time with each of the girls.

This is not what makes this show unique though.  It goes even further to humiliate the women.  More to Love is different because the girls are fat!  When I use the word fat, I mean it as an adjective and NOT as a pejorative or a derogatory term.  Most of the girls are very insecure about how they look and they are open about their insecurities.  They cry during most of their interviews and one-on-ones.  Most of them have never had a second date.

The show feeds on these emotions.  It’s cruel watching these women getting rejected again because you know out of 20, 19 of them will get rejected again.  Years of tears are unleashed on this show.

Here is the formula for the show

• Take 20 very insecure fat women.
• Put them in a candlelit room, poolside chats, flowers everywhere, champagne bottles flowing left and right.
• The guy gives each one a huge diamond ring called “the promise ring” (GAG!)  Most of these girls have never received a ring from a man before.
• They are ecstatic for getting this ring.
• As the show nears its end, the host tells the women “return the rings please”

If this is not cruel, I don’t know what is.  The drawn out ritual at the end of the show is fantastic and morbid. 20 women who just received a ring now wait to get it back.  It’s like watching a documentary from one of those shows where the guy picks a “date” from a line of women you would see in a seedy business in the far east.

It’s going to be a great show!  I can’t wait for the fighting to start. (And yes, I am ashamed of myself just like the rest of you)  This is the first reality show I might actually watch.

No kill shelter?

I love the idea of a no kill shelter where no animal is ever put to death because it was not adopted in time to make room for another poor animal.  As we were waiting for Hunter’s paperwork @ the Carrollton Operation Kindness, a man came by to drop off an animal he had found wondering around.

The animal shelter people kindly told him that they were at their maximum capacity and that they could not take another animal in.

There is a good chance that animal ended up in another shelter where he will possibly be put to his death soon.

Before you get another dog, please take some time to go visit an animal shelter.  I am pretty sure you’ll find your next family member there.

I love the idea of a no kill shelter where no animal is ever put to death because it was not adopted in time to make room for another poor animal.  As we were waiting for Hunter’s paperwork @ the Carrollton Operation Kindness, a man came by to drop off an animal he had found wondering around.

The animal shelter people kindly told him that they were at their maximum capacity and that they could not take another animal in.

There is a good chance that animal ended up in another shelter where he will possibly be put to his death soon.

Before you get another dog, please take some time to go visit an animal shelter.  I am pretty sure you’ll find your next family member there.

Hunter

When the world’s best dog Spike passed away on July 12th, our family was devastated with his sudden death.  We realized what a big part of our life he was.  The house was not the same without him.  For the first time in years I over slept because my boy Spike was not there to wake me up.  My son no longer felt safe staying home alone.  We were all missing a big part of our family.  We had truly become a family of 5.

There are little things that Spike did that we all missed.  I missed that whenever I sat in my Archie Bunker chair, and let my hand hang on the side, he would always come up and put his head under my hand.  No hand left hanging loose ever got wasted in our house.  Spike was always there to squeeze in a pet on his head.  For the last week any time any one of us dropped our food on the floor, our instinct was to call Spike over to clean it up.  My little girl cried over the fact that Spike was not there to clean her plate after dinner.  Spike’s first words he learned were “I am done” at the dinner table.  That was his call to finish my little girl’s dinner.

We had originally decided to wait a year or so to get another dog originally.  But seeing the void in the little ones and how much they missed Spike, we decided to find another loveable dog for them to fill the void as much as possible.

A friend recommended that having a new dog helps with the memories of the old one by talking about the past and good memories.  So we decided to adopt another dog from the same shelter where we got Spike 7 years ago almost to the day.

We went to Carrollton Operation Kindness.  This is a no kill shelter where every animal gets adopted (more on the no-kill shelter concept later).  We went to COK to look at a German Shepherd we saw on their web site.

Let me tell you about going to an animal shelter…  It’s not an easy place to go to, at least for me.  I hate that people ditch animals on the street left to die.  How a person can throw away an animal is something I still can’t comprehend.  Walking in the halls of the animal shelter is not easy. Some animals are too sick to get up, some are too eager to be petted.  Some want your attention almost to say “pick me” and some are just plain too traumatized to be handled.

Our new dog Hunter had been there for 3 months and had already been returned back from another house who had adopted him.  Already marked as a 2 year old puppy his chances of being adopted is much lower than most of the other pups.  He had 2 things wrong going for him 1) he is a big lab that is full of energy 2) he is a darker animal.

Believe it or not, #2 is not something I just made up.  The ladies at the shelter said that black and chocolate animals don’t get picked up as much as the rest of the crew because they don’t photograph well on their website.  And that’s true if you ever look at the pictures of a black or chocolate lab.  With a flash camera all you see is a black blur.

We asked to play with Hunter in the consultation room (a 12×12 room with nothing in it).  This is the same room where we had met Spike 7 years ago.  When Hunter entered the room, I knew he was coming home.  This guy was gorgeous.  He was a total spazz in the room running in a circle.  Imagine a 65 lb puppy trying to give you a hug.  The ladies kept telling us (almost warning) that labs are not easy animals when they are pups.  I tried to stick my hand in his mouth to see what he’d do.  I did the usual rough play and kept sticking my hand in his mouth to see how he’d react.  Not once did he hurt me or the kids.

I can see how most people would not adopt him.  He was a total nut job in the room.  But that’s what a lab does when you cage him 23 hours a day.  We decided to take him home with us.

So far, the first night was perfect.  It could not have been better actually.  We brought him home, ran him in the back yard for a good half hour throwing tennis balls and brought him inside.  So far, no pooping or peeing in the house.  He loves following his people which is still kind of cute since Spike would not care less what we did in the house.  We decided that the people at the shelter guessed his age wrong.  He is at most 18 months old and still has a lot of growing to do.  My guess is he is going to be about 90-100 lbs in 6 months.

More about Hunter’s adventures soon.

When the world’s best dog Spike passed away on July 12th, our family was devastated with his sudden death.  We realized what a big part of our life Spike was.  The house was not the same without him.  For the first time in years I over slept because my boy Spike was not there to wake me up.  My son no longer felt safe staying home alone.  We were all missing a big part of our family.  We had truly become a family of 5.

There are little things that Spike did that we all missed.  I missed that whenever I sat in my Archie Bunker chair, and let my hand hang on the side, he would always come up and put his head under my hand.  No hand left hanging loose ever got wasted in our house.  Spike was always there to squeeze in a pet on his head.  For the last week any time any one of us dropped our food on the floor, our instinct was to call Spike over to clean it up.  My little girl cried over the fact that Spike was not there to clean her plate after dinner.  Spike’s first words he learned were “I am done” at the dinner table.  That was his call to finish my little girl’s dinner.

We had originally decided to wait a year or so to get another dog originally.  But seeing the void in the little ones and how much they missed Spike, we decided to find another loveable dog for them to fill the void as much as possible.

A friend recommended that having a new dog helps with the memories of the old one by talking about the past and good memories.  So we decided to adopt another dog from the same shelter where we got Spike 7 years ago almost to the day.

We went to Carrollton Operation Kindness.  This is a no kill shelter where every animal gets adopted (more on the no-kill shelter concept later).  We went to COK to look at a German Shepherd we saw on their web site.

Let me tell you about going to an animal shelter…  It’s not an easy place to go to, at least for me.  I hate that people ditch animals on the street left to die.  How a person can throw away an animal is something I still can’t comprehend.  Walking in the halls of the animal shelter is not easy. Some animals are too sick to get up, some are too eager to be petted.  Some want your attention almost to say “pick me” and some are just plain too traumatized to be handled.

Our new dog Hunter had been there for 3 months and had already been returned back from another house who had adopted him.  Already marked as a 2 year old puppy his chances of being adopted were much lower than most of the other pups.  He had 2 things wrong going for him 1) he is a big lab that is full of energy 2) he is a darker animal.

Believe it or not, #2 is not something I just made up.  The ladies at the shelter said that black and chocolate animals don’t get picked up as much as the rest of the crew because they don’t photograph well on their website.  And that’s true if you ever look at the pictures of a black or chocolate lab.  With a flash camera all you see is a black blur.

We asked to play with Hunter in the consultation room (a 12×12 room with nothing in it).  This is the same room where we had met Spike 7 years ago.  When Hunter entered the room, I knew he was coming home.  This guy was gorgeous.  He was a total spazz in the room running in a circle.  Imagine a 65 lb puppy trying to give you a hug.  The ladies kept telling us (almost warning) that labs are not easy animals when they are pups.  I tried to stick my hand in his mouth to see what he’d do.  I did the usual rough play and kept sticking my hand in his mouth to see how he’d react.  Not once did he hurt me or the kids.

I can see how most people would not adopt him.  He was a total nut job in the room.  But that’s what a lab does when you cage him 23 hours a day.  We decided to take him home with us.

So far, the first night was perfect.  It could not have been better actually.  We brought him home, ran him in the back yard for a good half hour throwing tennis balls and brought him inside.  So far, no pooping or peeing in the house.  He loves following his people which is still kind of cute since Spike would not care less what we did in the house.  We decided that the people at the shelter guessed his age wrong.  He is at most 18 months old and still has a lot of growing to do.  My guess is he is going to be about 90-100 lbs in 6 months.

More about Hunter’s adventures soon.

Here we go again…

My doctor called me to inform me that it’s time for my yearly check up.  I can’t believe it’s been a whole year already.  I am still carrying wounds from my last exam.

Spike Spikey Zanagar

If all dogs go to heaven, Spikey is there chasing all the rabits.

He died in peace at the vets office with his people by his side.

Saturdays with Spike – Wish #2

Spike has lost 8 lbs with his new medicine.  The vet said to give him as much food as he can eat!  Spike has been on a diet for most of his adult life so this is a bonus with his cancer. (We are looking for positive signs).

He has been eating hot dogs, bagels, pancakes, more hot dogs and whatever I can find in the fridge.

Today, he got a treat…

Saturday’s with Spike – Wish #1

Spike has never run around in a park before without a leash.  Beylem took him to her school’s park and let him loose.  This is the same dog that has escaped from our back yard many times just to run around like a crazy dog.  He would not go more than 10 feet away from Beylem.  I think he knows something’s not right.

:(

Spike has cancer.  Last week he started vomiting uncontrollably and we took him to the vet on Saturday morning (my wife’s birthday).

The vet told us before the lab results that it looked bad and told us to be prepared for the worst.  The lab results confirmed that it’s cancer (lymphoma).

He is on medication and the medicines seem to help ease his discomfort, but that too will stop working the Vet said.

He does not have long, maybe a few months (3-4).

So, to make things easier for the kids and to make it a better life for Spikey, we are going to start a new picture album for the kids and in honor of Spike.  We will be doing things with him that we should have done a long time ago.

Spike has never been to a lake, or gone hiking.  He’s never been to a doggie park to sniff other dogs.  He has never run in the wild without a leash.  He has never taken a poop in anybody’s yard but mine.

I love this dog almost as much as my kids do.

More to follow on “Adventures of Spike”

Spike has cancer.  Last week he started vomiting uncontrollably and we took him to the vet on Saturday morning (my wife’s birthday).

The vet told us before the lab results that it looked bad and told us to be prepared for the worst.  The lab results confirmed that it’s cancer (lymphoma).

He is on medication and the medicines seem to help ease his discomfort, but that too will stop working the Vet said.

He does not have long, maybe a few months (3-4).

So, to make things easier for the kids and to make it a better life for Spikey, we are going to start a new picture album for the kids and in honor of Spike.  We will be doing things with him that we should have done a long time ago.

Spike has never been to a lake, or gone hiking.  He’s never been to a doggie park to sniff other dogs.  He has never run in the wild without a leash.  He has never taken a poop in anybody’s yard but mine.

I love this dog almost as much as my kids do.

More to follow on Adventures of Spike

Let me know if you have any ideas for things to do with him around town…

I am sad

My son and I were very sad to hear that Billy Mays died yesterday.  I loved this guy!  Some people find him annoying because of his “in your face” sales pitch but he had become somewhat of a friend in our house.  My son and I loved watching his “Pitch Men” show.  My son is a little inventor-wannna-be so naturally he found Billy Mays to be a brilliant guy although Billy himself never invents anything.  He just sells it.

It’s one of the few shows my son and I watch and enjoy together and hearing him die made us both sad.

I am ashamed…

I am ashamed to admit that I loved this movie.  It is brilliantly perverse (or perverse brilliance?) and it is as raunchy as it can get without breaking some sort of laws.  After having watched “He’s just not that into you” and “Traveling panties Part II”, I deserved a bro-mance movie.  Although my wife may not admit it, she laughed as hard as me in the movie theater, even when they were making that cute little baby do things no one should even think about doing.  What they do with that baby is wrong wrong wrong! But so frigging funny that I was still laughing about it in the car on the way home.

I like raunchy movies that make me laugh but the end of the movie was “dude.. that’s gonna haunt me for a while”.  It’s the perfect summer time movie if you don’t take it too seriously.  If you are offended by crude humor, stay home and watch “More to Love”.

I am ashamed to admit that I loved this movie.  It is brilliantly perverse (or perverse brilliance?) and it is as raunchy as it can get without breaking some sort of laws.  After having watched “He’s just not that into you” and “Traveling panties Part II”, I deserved a bro-mance movie.  Although my wife may not admit it, she laughed as hard as me in the movie theater, even when they were making that cute little baby do things no one should even think about doing.  What they do with that baby is wrong wrong wrong… But so frigging funny that I was still laughing about it in the car on the way home.

I like raunchy movies that make me laugh but the end of the movie was “dude.. that’s gonna haunt me for a while”.  It’s the perfect summer time movie if you don’t take it too seriously.  If you are offended by crude humor, stay home and watch “More to Love”.

Be glad you did not steal a Wii

The other day I was asked if I could explain why Muslims do some of the things they do.  This person assumed that I was devout Muslim since I was born and raised in a predominantly Muslim nation.  I bit my tongue and did not go jihad on his ass for making such an assumption.

I tried to explain to him that the same law that these “Muslims” carried is the same law that is in the bible.  Both books (the Koran and the Bible) are very similar when it comes to crime and punishment.  It’s brutal and very black and white.  Stoning,  hacking off a limb, getting your ass beat by a rod, more stoning are all very common, or rather were very common in those days.  I told him that the Bible does have the same rule as the Koran for cutting off your arm if you sin although I could neither recite nor remember the exact chapter until I got home and found it.

I am not surprised that Sharia courts carry out these sentences.  What I cannot comprehend is the fact that people attend these shows with their kids and watch them.  How does that even work?

– What’s on TV today honey?

– It’s summer time, it’s all re-runs and stupid reality shows

– But, Somalia’s got talent is on tonight!

– I heard there is a double amputation at the park

– Is it both hands or hand-and-foot?

– It’s the hand-foot-special

– Let me gather the kids and setup the DVR

Sometimes, I don’t like reading the news.  I like my reality based on stupid American reality shows.  I can’t wait for the new “More to Love” show on FOX where fat people find love.

The other day I was asked if I could explain why Muslims do some of the things they do.  This person assumed that I was devout Muslim since I was born and raised in a predominantly Muslim nation.  I bit my tongue and did not go jihad on his ass for making such an assumption.

I tried to explain to him that the same law that these “Muslims“ carried is the same law that is in the bible.  Both books (the Koran and the Bible) are very similar when it comes to crime and punishment.  It’s brutal and very black and white.  Stoning,  hacking off a limb, getting your ass beat by a rod, more stoning are all very common, or rather were very common in those days.  I told him that the Bible does have the same rule as the Koran for cutting off your arm if you sin although I could neither recite nor remember the exact chapter until I got home and found it.

I am not surprised that Sharia courts carry out these sentences.  What I cannot comprehend is the fact that people attend these shows with their kids and watch them.  How does that even work?

– What’s on TV today honey?

– It’s summer time, all re-runs and stupid reality shows

– But, Somalia’s got talent is on tonight!

– I heard there is a double amputation at the park

– Is it both hands or hand-and-foot?

– It’s the hand-foot-special

– Let me gather the kids and setup the DVR

Sometimes, I don’t like reading the news.  I like my reality based on stupid American reality shows.  I can’t wait for the new “More to Love” show on FOX where fat people find love.

English… Speak much?

One place I’d avoid entering in my resume…