Why Rip-off an Artist?
I am so tired of the current state of society. Humans no longer matter and we take a corporate attitude of greed and protect-your-own-ass because no one else will.
Actually, there are real people who will stand-up and fight together and stick-up for each other. But that’s not the point. The point is that it should have never gotten this bad.
I see this all the time. I designed a website that not only exceeded the needs and specs of the client, but it does so well beyond any parameters, including my own. As I am just a freelance artist, it’ll never win any awards (I can’t afford to enter the webbies, etc… I am not surviving on what I get paid now) and only the client’s customers will ever really see it.
Ever hear the phrase “Charge a Corporation Twice or more what you would anyone else for the same work.”? It is so very true. Although lulled into thinking I could work with these people, they broke the original contract. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a contract in writing. So *I* kept every promise and delivered an extremely search engine optimized, user friendly, interactive website based on the MODx content management system/framework. This is the most extreme I had ever gone with CSS, Sprites, Fly-out menus, minimal graphics, reduced graphic sizes, etc…
But in the long run I screwed myself because I didn’t have a written contract. And it would have protected me, because these people were absolute abusers.
Now, let me tell you that I did bid low to get this job because I thought I would enjoy it, but I had no idea that anyone could be so rude, condescending, back-stabbing or ruthless. Instead of treating me like a business partner with a humongous stake in their online success, I was belittled and chastised as if a lowly underling employee. I had never been treated with such disdain by a client, before. The terms of the original contract agreement was breached on several occasions and the deceit I experienced was unconscionable. It’s a surprise that I was able to complete the project at all. And I had no recourse because the agreement was verbal and I trusted them.
But the project was finished, despite themselves. Not only was it finished, it was done right (despite themselves): the way I wanted it done (which was well beyond what they had asked for).
But now I know why to charge 2 or 3 or more times the price for a corporate gig. Either you are working for a committee, or you are working as a mere employee with absolutely no rights or benefits (like a slave).
The extra money covers the extra hassle of writing the contract, and in dealing with a committee or being treated like a peon. And the contract protects you from getting the shaft, spiteful delays for meetings, etc… Now I know.
I told them I would not work for a committee, that I would work with just 1 person in delivering them a site beyond what they expected. I did. But not without giving in to allowing a second person in to the mix who berated me and crucified me to “corporate”, her bosses.
These employees have “corporate” on the brain because they are so scared of losing their jobs. The girl they added to the communication chain was apparently the company bulldog. And she thought she was right, no matter what the facts are. In the end she twisted everything into lies, was dismissive and disruptive just to “show me” a thing or two, and delayed the whole design & development process, incredibly.
Today I was on the phone with her to reach the other party, the guy I actually get along with, in order to make the site live. He’s gone for the day. As I am talking to her, she grunts her displeasure with me and dismisses me by hanging up the phone without so much as a “Goodbye.”
Previously, I had always worked with the business owner and entrepreneurs such as myself where we were smart enough to understand and communicate with each other. If only the masses could communicate, they could educate themselves.
Then, I run into this article on “Smart Planet” how artist’s should watch their own asses because it really is OK to steal someone else’s artwork!: How a thief defends theft: http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/thinking-tech/how-to-protect-your-copyrighted-images-on-the-web/3684/
I am so angry this guy works there, at “Smart Planet”. He’s telling us to watermark our artwork if we dare to put it online? And all we are doing is trying to give our best work. He says we could disable the right-mouse on a web page? That makes our visitors angry because that right mouse button does a whole helluva lot more than save images, it is a vital tool for any web user. He says to make a robots.txt file to steer the search engine bots away from our images… I did that once. Not only did my images no longer show-up in Google Images, but my graphic design rank plummeted, and some search engines (such as the wayback machine) showed my web pages with all the images blocked out with a gray window over them. Heck, I said stay away from crawling there, not to not show them on my pages!
There were plenty of lame excuses he gave, but they were all just excuses. But it was interesting to see the criminal mind at work, how he could so effortlessly come up with any excuse and act as if it was actually a convincing argument. Hey, fella, the reason Murdock gets away with it is because he owns Fox, not because it’s right, true or factual.
Listen, you self-centered “dogs” out there who don’t give a crap about anyone but yourself, it isn’t me or another artist that is “going to get you and bring you down”, it’s your own criminal activity and stupidity!
We artists are trying to give you are very damn best as a matter of pride in ourselves and our work. And you treat us like we aren’t worth the same as you, that we are under you, your class, your level of achievement? You rip us off for no good reason and excuse it as if we could do anything about it?
Where has morality gone? What has happened to our ethics, and why do we dismiss them in order to make a point on TV or in a blog? We used to be civil to each other. Corporate America is NOT a good thing. It seems to embrace ignorance. But no one is fooled by Sarah Palin. Being dumb is just plain dumb, no matter the excuse.
Sick & Tired of Facebook SPAM
I am really starting to get tired of all the spam… “So-and-so” posted “something” on your wall, but when you look at it, you are sent to an application that is supposed to quiz you and has nothing to do with anyone, writing on my wall, a photo of me that someone commented on, a picture of me within a photo, a nquestion about me, or anything. Spam is what made me walk away from Yahoo, they did not take my privacy seriously. Google has, and although I don’t like their monopolistic corporate greed attitude, I am still there because they are seemingly serious about protecting my account.
This is the same reason that people left MySpace and strolled over to Facebook. We were sick of all the spam. But if Facebook is just going to become another damn haven for spammers, you can count me out.
Facebook, get your head out of your butt right now. Or I will be gone.
Paul Iverson Memorial Today
There will be a memorial for my cousin Paul Iverson today at 11:00am at the Heritage Funeral Home (on South Minnesota Avenue at 57th Street) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Paul died of multiple system failure at Sanford Hospital in his room on the 6th floor on the Saturday morning of July 25th, 2009.
Paul was my favorite cousin. We went to SDSU at the same time and enjoyed taking a break and watching the older (more violent) cartoons together, laughing at the toons, but eventually we would guffaw at each other’s funny laughs. You know, the kind of laughter you only let out when you let your guard down because it can be embarrassing? We both believe that laughter has a great healing quality and is great for the soul.
Paul was an excellent draftsman. He was well educated, very talented, extremely smart, mild mannered, had that great sense of humor and wit, and was a great friend to all who were fortunate enough to know him. Paul cherished his family and friends above all. He just loved spending time with my son, Max.
Paul was also a crack shot with the rifle, a real shark when it came to playing pool, and he loved old movies and TV. He didn’t ever have a computer, though only this year when I showed him my Sony laptop loaded with Windows Vista, he actually said that now he might consider getting one now, as they seemed to be more reasonably designed and user friendly. I insisted, as I do now, that we are still in the dark ages as to usability.
Paul Iverson is survived by his wife Julie Iverson. Although Julie had divorced Paul, they remained close. But she did not want to be his enabler and hoped he would change his ways. Unfortunately, Paul did not make that wake-up call and his vices eventually killed him.
But Paul was not scared of death. He knew Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and had no quams with meeting his maker.
Paul took care of his aging father at the end of his life, who has recently lost his wife (and Paul’s mother, Joan). Unfortunately, his father Jim now has to bury his son.
We will all miss him, but we know he is in a better place with his mother and other members of his family.
Rest In Peace, Paul. I love you, man.
My Cousin is on His Death Bed
My best cousin Paul is lying in his death bed. The hospital has removed his life support and are just trying to make him comfortable. He would have wanted it that way. He was not afraid to die, he new Jesus Christ is his Lord and Saviour. And he would not want to be confined to a bed in long term care even if they could save him.
My cousin loved life. He was a great guy. I had many friends and he clearly ranked amongst the very best of them. He loves his family and friends.
His wife is clearly distrought. Although she had divorced him in order to shock him into changing his bad habits,they did remain close and I know that Paul cherished his relationship with her.
I don’t know what to say, what to do. Because I can’t. I can’t do anything. I feel weak and alone. Though we both tried, we clearly could not fix him. Though others tried, he did not seem to feel as if he needed fixing. In many ways he fixed me, many times. But we couldn’t do anything for him.
No one wanted to enable him. There were long periods of isolation as when we tried to make our point. And although it often seemed that our point had sunk in, he was also a smart, clever, funny guy that knew just how to win us over again. And we had already missed him too long.
Often I thought that he got it. He completely understood, I am certain of it. But he could not help himself and learned how to fool the whole world.
He isn’t fooling anyone now. We aren’t laughing together anymore. He does not know how sad his condition makes us, how deeply his distant soul effects us, because knowing how much he did love his family and friends, he just wouldn’t have done this to us. He couldn’t have, if he had known how terribly this tradgedy effects us.
Still, I love that man. He was the sober voice in many of my relationships, helping me understand where I have gone wrong. Yet he was always at odds with his own relationship with hisself.
We all wish we would have done a better job. But he was so good at hiding his pain.
I don’t want to miss him, ever.
And yet, I know I will, always.
Still, I pray for a miracle. Please Lord? I know you have sent me many. Is another asking too much?
We laughed together, even at each other once we realized the other was making us laugh harder. We knew laughter was good for the soul and had great healing properties. I want to make him laugh again. I need him to laugh. I don’t want to lose him.
Career Search
Trying to find a good job is in itself a full-time job. And now I am starting to get pretty discouraged. Although I am still working on my own projects, these self-employment web design projects are now becoming few and far between as less work is coming in.
It is actually a pretty bad, huge mistake to make on the behalf of business, not to advertise or not to hire. It is now, when the advertising rates are lower, and the job market is full of great talent, that companies need to continue advertising and hiring the cream of the crop people it needs not only to survive, but to grow in the face of difficult times.
Advertisers that continue throughout these hard times will be rewarded in the long run because they will have much less of a difficult time establishing brand recognition when compared to the competition that refuses to maintain brand awareness. Part of that reason is that consumers are more careful and are now establishing lasting business relationships with people they trust.
It is the same reasoning that businesses need to continue hiring the talent required to not only survive this economy, but to grow in spite of it, because the landscape of the internet and successful marketing techniques are changing so quickly that new alliances and innovative approaches have to be developed quickly and effectively with the business community itself. Sit on your laurels too long and it is highly likely that your company will not survive the current economic devastation we are experiencing. If GM and Chrsyler did not teach us through their lack of innovation, we have learned absolutely nothing.
I had been able to look pretty optomistic about all of this until now, as I know that I have great talent to offer the right company for the right position. Unfortunately, I am not getting any favorable replies from anyone, anywhere.
Admittedly, I am located in a bad spot here in South Dakota. Very few companies here get the new medias. They are still having trouble accepting television’s role as a marketing tool, much less understanding that every single business and professional require a well branded portfolio that can represent the business in a positive light 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (or 366 days per year on a leap year).
We started out here not simply because I have roots here, but because it is such a great place to raise a family. However, due to the considerable lack of understanding for the incredible advances in technology and new media, my skills have largely been ignored by the community as a whole. Plus, it is more of a challenge for me to get the word out about my business when I am working out of a home office.
However, I am still trying to remain positive in my career search despite the frustration I have encountered. But just like taking my business to the next level by aqcuiring a commercial property, it seems that in order to be noticed by potential employers outside my own area, I really need to personally visit their locations. This is actually much more difficult than I would have thought.
It takes so long just to establish contact with a potential employee that it is significantly difficult to setup a scheduled appointment with any one of them. And herein lies the real problem, because I have no problem visiting any location in the pursuit of a career advancement.
While it is true that I will make significantly less than I would be getting as a freelance artist/designer/copywriter/webmaster/seo/promoter/marketer/director on a contract basis, the reason that I am looking to find a decent career in the web design industry and relocate to wherever I am required for such a new position is the very attidude that I am facing because of the ignorance in this area for my industry.
Although getting to a few interviews for my craft is still a vital concern of mine, I have run into an article that was quite eye-opening for me. In fact I actually started writing this post so that I could mention it. Therefore I should possibly apologize for this post since I am sort of backing into this recommendation, but I found that the Seven Great Questions to Ask at a Job Interview was a great article posted at Lifehack. If you are looking, or thinking of looking for a new position, I highly recommend that you read this article.
Remember, the interview is for you, as well. Any company would want you to make an informed decision if you are offered the job. They don’t just want people who can offer winning interviews, they actually require a person that is capable of performing the job and fulfilling its requirements as they see it, as an educated leader. But if you don’t know what that position entails, you are probably flunking the interview as yet another amongst the masses of applicants they are getting, anyway.
Though I have had a few interviews, they have not been in my chosen field of web design. I know HTML, XHTML, CSS, graphic design, branding, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, copy writing, keyword optimization, search availability, website optimization, online marketing, social networks, one way link building, search engine marketing, PPC adverising, as well as traditional marketing and advertising. I am also gaining knowledge and experience in Flash and have quite a few tricks up my sleeve for other creative solutions to web design issues. In short, most serious businesses need someone like me directing their creative art department.
I just don’t have the resources to expand my business to the next level with a commercial presence and a complete advertising campaign. And just like any other advertising business, I would be doomed to failure without a significant advertising campaign.
Which is why I am quite serious about relocating out of this family friendly area back into a metropolis where my talents would be valued and exploited. I need a steady career that my family can count on guys, and if you are checking out my blog, please consider that I am quite serious about excelling as the web designer everyone would want.
The Case of the Long Hiccup
Have you ever had the hiccups? Have you ever had them so bad that they won’t stop? What if you could stop them? I can. My wife hates it. My mother looks at me with the evil eye every single time I do it.
Why? Because, unless I am completely horizontal in my bed or on the couch, I don’t stop it with that gag reflex. For some reason, I open the back of my throat and take in lots of air. It really becomes the opposite of the belch. It’s long, noisy and loud.
If I am laying down, I will get the normal hiccups, “hic, hic, hic, hiccup, hic, hic…” but as soon as I sit up I just allow for one long hiccup and its over. Well, sometimes I belch afterwards because I took in too much air, but if I am in public I can easily control the belch.
But now that I know how to stop the hiccups, with a real long loud one, I can’t not stop it. And what’s worse, now I feel like I am hiccuping more and more. Sure, I get rid of them for a small peice, but later in the day I will do another one.
It seems to be timed as to when I am hungry or when I have just eaten and (whether or not I am full). I hiccup more after drinking milk or orange juice.
But the worse thing is that it’s not sounding at all like a hiccup. It sounds more like I am a large bird squawking. I always feel embarrassed, but I can’t really stop doing it. I think most people think I am drunk or recovering from a hangover.I love drinking Coke because then I can contain it (or hide it) with a belch, and it isn’t near so painful.
And what’s more, they are getting louder and more obnoxious. And I just can’t help it.
My son hiccups all the time, “Hic, hic, hiccup…” But mine is more like a “Hiaowwwwwwwwwk.”
Some people understand and just laugh. I actually do laugh about it myself, but only when I am alone because my wife hates it so much.
I have tried to stop it now and again, but that just doesn’t work. I feel like I will collapse a lung if I do. My stomach just sucks in but there is no air.
God, my wife is going to hate me when I get older. Heck, we are already in separate rooms. I snore like a bear growling as he revs up his chainsaw to saw some wood. But that’s when I’m asleep. Everyone thinks I should be able to control this quirk. And these long sustained hiccups are coming more often, lasting a little longer, getting louder.
I don’t have them for a while after I let that first one go, but now with them coming more often and so much more noisy, I feel like some sort of giant dinosaur bird in mating season squawking for a mate.
I have to agree, sometimes it is just plain inappropriate. But if I don’t let it go, I have to deal with some extreme pain, now.
So, beware of the long hiccup, it’s a killer. And can be quite embarrasing around snobs and other stuck-ups. I sure am glad some of us have a sense of humor, though. 
Falling to Sleep
Most likely, you aren’t like me. Of course, that’s a good thing. But that’s also why I feel like this is an amazing phenomenon for me. And yet others, I am sure, are probably just like me…
Whenever I am laying on my back, I absolutely always have to fall asleep. Always, without a doubt, at some point, I starting falling asleep. But that’s a literal statement, too. I actually fall to sleep.
Let me give you an example. Say I start falling asleep and start dreaming that I am walking on the beach at sunset. At some point, I will misstep. I won’t see a hole, or I will trip on a stick or rock, loose my footing, and simply start falling over backwards.
I am always falling over backwards, never frontwards, and I always wake up, right away. But once I have fallen, I can then snooze away, sleep long and hard, snoring and all. It’s like a little ritual for me.
Of course, if I lay on my front, this usually doesn’t happen. I don’t need to trip and fall into a mode of complete relazation and let go. But I will often wake myself up as I kick my leg up for balance when I start out sleeping on my back, or either of my sides.
Sometimes I am passing the ball to my son as we play catch in my initial fall-to-sleep dream and I wake myself up as my arm jerks because I am actually following through with the pass. Sometimes I wake up as I try to bite into ice cream. But if I haven’t actually fallen over backwards, I’m not going to be falling asleep until I have fallen over backwards.
And I will fall as long as I’m not buried into the bed face down.
Sometimes it’s on a stairs, or falling off a swing. And always backwards.
Kinda funny, huh? 
OK, maybe not. But it is strange.
Dad was a Righteous Man
My father, John C. Peters, Attorney at Law, died on February 24th, 2009. He was a good man, he also loved to party. He was often described as the life of the party by family and friends.
He helped quite a few over the course of his life.
He didn’t like Me much. He rarely helped me. I can remember when he said “No.” to my request for $500.00 to replace the tools that were stolen because I had a job as a motorcycle mechanic that I was starting the next Monday. I lost the position because I didn’t have any tools.
Of course, he was trying to counteract the lifestyle of the spoiled rich kid. I may not agree with how he did it, but he was a self-made man, he expected me to be the same way, I suppose.
He was a righteous man and he could recognize that quality in others. It made him a born leader.
And he didn’t see that in me. I had disappointed him too much as a child. I liked to joke around and he always took me seriously. So I didn’t live up to his great expectations.
When we moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, for my last year and half of high school, I was all excited to be moving to a new place and making new friends, checking out new girls, racing my motorcycle on new tracks.
But the motorcycle racing attracted the wrong crowd. Spoiled boys, gearheads and hoodlums. That was quite different from Omaha, when we lived next door to Warren Buffet and his family. The guys that kept hanging around me in West Hartford lacked any direction or a sense of responsibility. And I could not discourage them to leave me alone. I guess if they had one good quality, it was that they sure were persistent.
I actually liked a couple of them, but some were just up to no good.
One guy I was just starting to like, Kieth, who rode his motorcycle everywhere, was killed right after we decided to be friends and look out for each other. 10 days afterwards I heard he was killed a couple of days after we talked.
I heard it like he hit the back of his head or neck on a trailer hitch. The guy I dislike the most shook him to revive him. Later he found a piece of his bone and made a roach clip out of it. Sick.
I never told Dad.
I hate death.
Dad died before we straightened out some things. But he had a new wife, a new family, new responsibilities, and he loved the West Hartford area. He protected his family. And his new family treated him well. He deserved that.
He always hoped that I would do something with my art. I guess that’s the one thing he could be proud of me for.
And I am told he loved me.
But he never met his 8 year-old blackbelt grandson (my son, Maximilian).
He kept me out of college, though I wanted to go. Heck, I wanted to go to the Rhode Island School of Design. But I had setup motorcycle school first. What did I know? Motorcycles were my life back then. So he made me chose between the American Motorcycle Institute (motorcycle mechanics classes) and the Rhode Island School of Design. The thing is that he made me chose once the motorcycle school was already setup and expecting me.
He wouldn’t allow me to get into a college after that. I tried to enroll in a couple of colleges, but I had to wait until I was 24 years old to get in because he refused to sign a document declaring that I was independent, even though he kicked me out of the house at 18 years old. I never did get that. I finally started college shortly after I turned 25.
Some of the crumb bums (trying to be civil, here, I call these particular scum by worse privately) that called themselves my friends in my West Hartford days actually stole my racing engine. My father did work hard at getting it back. I still have it, a Bultaco Pursang A. But by the time I got it back the season, maybe 2? was over.
There went my racing career.
I suppose I should have appreciated his efforts more. I really did appreciate it, but I don’t think he felt like I did.
But I was not actually a great kid. When the rest of the family went to the Dominican Republic, I stayed behind and threw a party. A few close friends? That’s not what showed-up.
One time I was sweet on the Seventeen Magazine cover model and started talking to her, getting very into her. My hoodlum “friends” surrounded us. I made a deal with them, they would leave her alone. She would leave and they would follow me.
I told Dad these guys were no good, that I didn’t want to be their friend, but I doubt if he believed me. Besides, they had fellow lawyers as fathers.
Too many things were left unresolved with Dad’s death. This was a shame, but I guess we don’t always get the closure we expect.
We had a memorial at the Malloy Funeral Home in West Hartford on Saturday, March 21st. Most of the family reconnected. It’s unfortunate it took that for the reconnect to happen, but it is good that something good came of his passing. There were many family & friends, new & old, in attendance thinking and saying great things in the celebration of his life.
I took some great photos at the reception. I plan on sending them by DVD to his family & friends as soon as I can.
It was great to see everyone. I was able to reconnect with my brother and his family, and with my sister. It was so good to see them, as well as see my father’s new family and speak with them.
Once again, he did a great thing, by getting us all back together.
I wish I could have spent more time talking to everyone, exchanging business cards and catching up. But there is so little time and my brother’s family was hosting my cousins from out-of-town. And Ed & Mary Beth are expecting their first born, so I was happy to follow along with whatever was required as like my wife’s pregnancy, I understand theirs is also a tough one.
My father was loved and will always be missed by many. I am very sorry to see him go. Of course, I wish he wouldn’t have passed so soon. But the memorial was a great celebration of his life. And he did enjoy a long and full life.
He often reminded me that I was the eldest of a generation. I really never knew what that meant. I guess I was supposed to be a good role model and I failed him there.
But I hoped that he will understand me in the long run. In a way I think he did. He didn’t like to keep in contact with me. He said “No news is good news.”
I always loved the man, I always will love him. I guess I just wish we could have understood each other more.
One of his favorite songs reminded him of our relationship, as he explained it to me. I think it’s called “Cats in the Cradle” by Cat Stevens (I’ll correct the song title in that sentence later if I find it named something else).
-His eldest son… Douglas Peters
Why are Lugnut Caps so Hard to Find?
It seems like all the automakers lose the details. I’d like to buy a few. Can’t find them anywhere when I’m looking.
If you have a supply of those litttle black GM lugnut caps, please get ahold of me. I also bought the lugnutcap.com & lugnutcaps.com domains if you would you would like an affiliate for used, oem or aftermarket sales.
I’d also be interested in hearing from custom lugnut cover manufacturers and designers.
-Doug
This is a Crazy Time
Hi Everyone…
This has been, and continues to be, a very crazy time for me. I have lots of my own projects that I need to work on, as well as work I need to do for some of my clients, and more things I need to accomplish for my employer. To top that off, my mother (who provides her great child care services for our son) is vacationing in the Virgin Islands.
As a result, I am spread as thin as tin at the moment. That’s why I haven’t been blogging too much or on Twitter and other social networking websites a great deal, recently. I’m just too busy.
I do have a whole long list of articles that I want to post, as I am still actively running the Web Design and Development group at Google Groups. I have contributed quite a bit to the group over the years and want to archive my most helpful posts/articles here.
I am also trying to learn a few new things, as well. Flash would be just one of them. I have been putting-off learning Flash far too long. I think that if I can just get a handle on drawing and tweening in Flash, I will be able to do what I need. Unfortunately, Flash looks quite spectacularly different than any other vector drawing or frame animation graphics program that I have ever used before. And the tutorials I am taking are the absolutely most boring peices of junk that I have ever seen in any kind of design or artistry textbook (usually I love reading these things).
I bought an HP notebook for my wife for Christmas and was so jealous that I almost bought one exactly like it for myself. It’s a good thing I didn’t because I found a Sony Vaio VGN-AW125J laptop with a full keyboard, full 1080p Hi-Def screen and a CD/DVD/Blu-ray player & burner. Although I couldn’t ask for a better computer, Sony is having great difficulty getting me a decent battery. The first one would only charge to 80% and drains quickly, and the replacement battery that I received yesterday only seems to charge the battery up to 79%. So I am starting to get very disappointed and angry with Sony. My family and I actually spend quite a bit buying Sony products.
Please note that although I would prefer to buy American for most of our stuff, Gateway & Dell have failed me miserably, before. So I am truly puzzled when this Sony Made-In-China laptop can’t perform as required straight out of the box. But Dell, Gateway, Compaq & HP products are all coming out of Taiwan or some other foreign country, anyway. So it’s not like I could buy American, the US doesn’t make anything, anymore. Even American cars and trucks could well have been made in Mexico or Canada.
The state of the economy is absolutely sinful. And the financial institutions did this to us. And they did it on purpose in the name of profit. Greed corrupts. It always will.
I am truly thankful that President Obama is finally in office. I am very pleased with his performance so far. I am not pleased with the senate & house who are either to inept or feeble minded to cut the pork out of the bail-out bill. It kills me that the senate is crying about the pork and does nothing but attach its own. No one seems to even be pondering the ridiculously heavy burden we are putting on our kids.
So I am not at all happy with how the bail-out has been going, and feel infuriated at how it has been handled. Especially the mismanagement of banks and financial institutions who have been ripping-off the public for years on end. And we have no options, we have no choice but to trust banks. And yet, they stiff us at every single turn.
Bank executives are making millions for failure while I am still in the poor-house as a productive freelancer and employee. I barely make anything and often pay double the taxes for my freelance projects because I am “self-employed”. My own bank is wasting millions and I will be addressing that very soon by transfering accounts to a different and much smaller FDIC insured bank that I can trust.
The country was run by a moron and his moronic administration for 8 years now, and it is simply falling into the gutter. The rich are richer and drunk as hell with unchecked power, peeing all over the rest of us. There is no way that Bernie Madoff should have been able to steal 50 Billion dollars. But he did because the government looked the other way. WTF?
I am absolutely sick of this pork barrel attitude and the ineptness of our government. And while I realize that President Barak Hussein Obama had absolutely no part in building the situation that he was left with, he is still holding the bag at a time when everything is so bad that he may get blamed with the predicament despite his hardest efforts because the government itself is so positively and absolutely broken and non-functional.
But today is a time to enjoy the blessings of my family. It is a wonderous time because tonight my 8 year-old son will try to become a Black Belt at Songhamn Taekwondo. Whether he accomplishes it or not doesn’t actually matter to me. Sure, I will be very proud of him if he does, but I will be just as proud of him for trying if he doesn’t test-out as a Black Belt. I know that he will be a Black Belt at any time, now. When doesn’t really matter.
We put Max in the Taekwondo program at Hoover’s Martial Arts (in the Western Mall in Sioux Falls, SD) as a Tiny Tiger less than 4 years ago. He was excited about it then, as he is now. In fact, we have given him several chances to leave the program, but he really enjoys it and is anxious to attend each class.
Although almost certainly a great deal of pride comes from this impending great accomplishment, no matter when it actually occurs, the thing that I am the most proud of is that Max made this happen on his own. It really is his accomplishment, not ours.
There is a little something more to add to this, as well. Because taekwondo has been extremely good for Max. It hasn’t just helped with his coordination and control, but it has actually enriched him as a person and taught him discipline. Obviously, his instructors deserve a great deal of credit for inspiring him and instilling this capacity for discipline in my son. But Max also deserves an even larger portion of the credit for understanding and utilizing the tools he was armed with through their teachings. He was, afterall, open minded enough to absorb what they taught him. And he is intelligent enough to understand it it, as well.
The truth is that Max’s attitude was just starting to becoming a bit of a problem when we enrolled him in the taekwondo class. The classes gave Max direction and focus. He’s stopped behaving like a little boy, and more like a big boy who understands responsibility.
We still struggle to keep Max from becoming a “spoiled little brat”, every parent does. Although his taekwondo classes offer a great deal of guidance towards that goal, it also functions as a platform on which our minds can connect when discussing life’s lessons and choices.
Because as Max has told me, we have choices. He knows he can choose to have a good day or a bad day, to be a good boy or a bad boy. And I am proud that he has a history of making good choices. That’s what life is all about, trying to become a righteous man.
With all that going on, I really have been busy. I certainly wish Max all the luck in the world, although he is so skilled I am comfortable that he won’t need it. I do hope that the government wises up and just passes what is required. I know something needs to be done right away, but if they give away the horse and the cart too my son will be paying for that mistake because they will mis-manage it again, just as they always do. History continues to repeat. Why doesn’t anyone learn from this?
Stupidity still abounds. Even my own x-senator, a minority leader, can’t pay his taxes after making millions? Don’t get me wrong, I like Daschle, he helped us out, he did some great work. But he can’t pay his dang taxes when I have to?
ARGH!
What is wrong with this government? Too much, I’ll tell you! I just hope Obama will bring change, or we are truly doomed.
WE NEED SOME DAMN LEADERSHIP, RIGHT NOW.
Anyways, I had to make it a point to stop and post something to the blog, it has been way too long since my last post, and this is a very crazy time. I am extremely busy. I am proud of my son, yet extremely shameful of my government. And I’m really, really sick of buying crappy computers.
But now, I have to get back to work…
Take care & be cool! -Doug
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