So here's a peek

I cannot post the whole dilema because the person I write about may someday read my blog. As of now, they don't. Unless of course they did a search on google with my name and found it that way. A new friend of mine has asked me to go to a social 'thing' with her. I've never met her and just saw her pic today. It kinda weirded me out that she would ask me to attend w/her when she never met me in person. Now, should I be concerned of this person. Whether I should go or not is not a question to me, I already said, "I cannot go". But my question to those who care to comment, should I be concerned? and Why/not? Let me know what you think, my wise counselors!!

Dilema

I have a dilema, but not posting it right now. Another topic, for not being a reader, i got alot of reading material in the mail today. This months CCM, this months Relevant and a letter from my friend in prison. So adios for now, friend or stranger. Btw, what should I do with my dilema. you see, when I have to make a choice, I usually pick the 'easier' route, not there is a right or wrong, just that there is one way or the other and neither being right or wrong. I guess it has to do more with self consciousness and shyness.. i know, you're thinking, Jeff? You? Shy? I'll be darned!

Kelly's Blog

I think everyone who knows kelly, or even if you don't, should go to this blog (her old one) and comment along with me and taj about this guy stealing her blog. c'mon ppl get with the program.

Father's Day

It's Father's Day, what the he11 do you want me to say? No big saga, no long story, nothing because in reality who really cares anyway

The Citizen's arrest

Ok, Thanks Shauna for being the single person who wat interested in hearing the story. At least I know someone is still reading my blog! :) Anyway. It starts as I stop by the house around 10:45pm to pick up Cindy, my 13 year old sister. And as we get about 5 blocks from home, I come to a stoplight with a car in front of me with no lights and an SUV in front of it. The guy gets out of the SUV waiving his hands and at the same time the car with no lights makes a U turn. At that point I thought, "I know what just happened"> A hit and run. So as I floor it in reverse to make the intersection for a U turn, the car is now going down a side street and has not yet seen me following. I already have a 911 operator on the phone and I'm trying to tell her, hit and run at Lawndale and Robbins.. As I round the corner I see the car spinning about 3 times in the middle of the street. He had just hit about 6 parked cars doing about 65mph. As I flew down Lawndale 4 males jumped out of the car and ran. I had just enough space to squeeze by and followed on male that I was sure came from the car. To backtrack, when I made that U turn I had a split second decision to make. do i follow or drive on. Now I apologized 10 times to Cindy for scaring her and having her witness that. but I made the decision and never looked back. OK, so the male is running around the corner and as he hits a driveway I'm right behind him in the car. I hit tha breaks, throw it in park and reach under my seat for my 4 cell mag light! He is now at a slow job since he saw me come in. As I ran up the driveway, I told him (more simplified) to "hit the ground (sir)" ha. He ran toward a fence and I told him again. "Do not jump that fence, Stop and put your hands on your head and hit the ground" at that (thankfully) he stopped looked at me and layed down. I proceeded to kneel on the center of his back, his hands under his head. I asked him, "you got anything on you, drugs, a gun"? When he said no, I quickly patted his pockets and pants to make sure he didn't try something sly on me later on. I got back on the phone with a 911 operator and notified them who I was and where I was. In the driveway. The suspect complained that with me kneeling on his back made it hard to breathe, so I told him I was going to stand up so he could breathe but he better now move. He still complained about being hard to breathe so I let him sit against the fence and he cooperated. I asked him why he ran, he replied "I got 4 warrants, what did you expect me to do". To which I replied, "well with 4 warrants, i guess i'd say run". Lucky for me there was a lady standing at her back door who witnessed everything from me chasing him to the end. The police officers finally got there about 10 min. after the initial call and thanked me. Oh and by the way, immediately after apprehending the suspect I made a phone call and had Cindy picked up by my sister because I knew she was scared. And just incase you are wondering, "is what I just read legal?" the answer is absolutely YES. The law states that if you as a civilian see a crime being committed or a suspect running from a crime and you are more than certain that you have the right man, you have the legal right to apprehend the suspect and if he resists you have the right to use only the force necessary to apprehend the suspect and hold him for police to arrive. Granted that it may get you a day in court as a witness, I thought of that only after the fact and thought, well for that adrenaline rush, I'll go! I've been subpeonad before it's only a day out of my life.!! And in the end it turned out that the car was stolen, the tag was stolen, the driver has 4 warrants for arrest, he was only 17 and never had a license to drive a car. For my heroic efforts I recieved a "Thanks". Which was good enough for me.

-The End-

Arrested!!

I made a citizen's arrest tonight, man, talk about adrenaline rush! Maybe I'll post the whole story sometime, but right now i'm too tired.

Dreams

This poem was written by a friend of mine who is in prison for a long time. Read it over and over until you understand what he is saying;

In sadness I wait
For years to abate
.... no homecoming for me.

Dream for me
As you've never dreamed before
... I can dream no more

My nightmare has become the dream
My everything
...& choices are so hard.

Hard as it is to temper and anneal
The abstract into words
.... for humans

You do not understand
The words of an animal
Cages breed animals
.....I bark at you.

Blockbuster pulls through for me

Blockbuster may be biased against the Latino community but not towards me. I get my movie pass almost every month from Blockbuster. My usual thing is to pay cash and cancel before the end of the month. This past month as I left the store shortly after purchasing the movie pass for the 5th month in a row for the introductory rate, I asked 'Abneer' to cancel my movie pass. To which he replied, "Sure, I'll take care of it". But as it ends up he never did that and it ended up renewing on my debit card. That would not have been such a big deal except that my debit card drew from my checking account which was at a low point and overdrew my acccount incurring a $30 overdraft fee. Remember, I'm paying the introductory rate for the movie pass for 5 months, i'm not about to pay $56.74 for one now. When I go into Blockbuster on Wed.night the manager in the store, Raja, says that there is nothing he can do because he is not the store manager and the pass was technically already used because my movies are back late. Which technically is a bunch of bull crap. The reason I say that is because even before the 'no more late fees' promotion that Blockbuster has, I was always getting out of late fees. So I know it can be done. Well it ends up that the represenatives from Bank of America could not do enough to help me out. When the woman asked if there was anything else she could help me with today, I said,"Yes, you could train Blockbuster's employees to be as nice and helpful as you guys are". And if that wasn't enough the lady apologized on behalf of Blockbuster! So anyway, Bank of America immediately credited the amount of Blockbuster's un-authorized transaction to me and made it their problem to get the money back from Blockbuster. How cool of a bank is that!? They also credited back the overdraft fees saying that it obviously was not my fault for the overdraft. But I have a tip for you, if you get an overdraft fee from Bank of America, if you take the time to inquire about getting it removed, I've been 100% successful with 4 attempts in a year. So all in all, Bank of America could not have been more helpful. But Blockbuster employees at the Rising Sun and Longshore store, Raja and Abneer, could have been alittle more supportive of a customrer with a problem. Oh, and the deal I made with blockbuster was taht they could refund hte money to me if I didnt rent from them for 30 days. Go figure. But I took it.

Volleyball humor

Here's the issue; every Memorial Day we (church/family) have this huge picnic. There are about 500+ people there. There are always loads of games of some kind going on. I usually play volley ball. That's where the interesting part comes in. There is this one guy, we'll use the name J as a generic name. We'll get back to the name later. The game of volley ball consists of one ball, one net and from 8-12 players. We used 12 players this game. Normally when you play volleyball the only thing allowed to touch the net OR go past it, is the ball. Anything else that passes or touches the net is a penalty. Well that rule goes out the window as soon as the guys I play with show up. Some time the net is actually pulled down literally to waist level on a multiple (4) person slam. You see, I don't really care which way we play, whether we play straight up street volley ball or if we play strictly by the rules volley ball. Included in street volleyball is 'pass interference' which is when the second hit is being hit parrallel with the net to another player on your team and the opposing team reaches over the net and hits it down. Also in street volley ball 'full net slams' are legal, which is a slam in which the person slamming the ball actually hits the net with his armpit. And an all new hit that is clearly illegal by any rule book is one that 'J' made up today. Picture this discription of what took place. It was a two handed hit; the ball came down to him he placed one hand on either side of the ball, directly across from each other and as he closed his hands on the ball he spun it over the net. You have to imagine that in fast motion. You see, I don't care by what rules we play by, but I want everyone on the court to play by the same rules. That play with the grab/spin was clearly illegal, but no one dares say anything to 'J' because he will deny that he did anything wrong in the game. The slams where the net touches his armpit, nothing wrong he would say, or the pass interference, nothing wrong he would say. And I would also say there is nothing wrong with it IF everyone could do the same thing and get away with it. As the game went on I started to get enough of his reaching behind our front line to slam it and the unique grab/spin of the ball that I went up (after the opposing team's third hit) went over the front line, and spiked it down. Only to get yelled at by half the team. The point I made was that; If 'J' can do it the whole game and no one say anything about, how come I can't do the same thing and get away with it?? I can tell you why; It's because everyone knows that 'J' is a big baby when it comes to sports, there is no way that whatever he did he would admit that he was wrong. He may get a cute face on and say,"oh c'mon guys, its only a game, its all in fun". Well guess what 'J' its may be just a game, but you are clueless if you think of it that way. People play sports and put their hearts in to it and have you come out and break the rules and then laugh and say c'mon guys, it's only a game let's have fun. But c'mon 'J' quit being so clueless, there are rules and you have no right to play if you are going to break them!! Some people think that volleyball is a game of sheer brute strength! But it's not, it's a game of creativeness, skill, and athleticism and most of all RULES!!! Get with the program 'J' it's about rules and for some reason everyone is afraid to remind of you of that, I think it's because they know that you don't care about the rules and you'll be right anyway. They know you will argue or get a cute face and act as tho 'you' are the baby instead of him. Well it's about time that people stood up for what is right, the RULES, and if 'J' can't follow the rules like everyone else, GO HOME< SIT OUT!! "Get a clue dude"!

Dr. Dobson gets the boot for more loot

Dr. James Dobson of Focus on The Family and Family.org lost the support of his old friend recently. Dr. Neil Clark Warren of eHarmony.com wants to distance himself from Focus on The Family saying they they are 'deadly'. Warren has recently bought back his books that Focus has published, so that he can remove the "Focus on The Family" logo from the their covers. eHarmony started out marketing to only Christian websites and only Christian 'customers'. But Dr. Warren wants to appeal to and assist a global base. He wants to help people of all backgrounds, all races, all political orientations etc. to find their soulmates, not just Christians. Dr. Warren says that, "If we have Focus on The Family on the top of our books, it's a killer! Because Focus on The Family occupies a very precise political position and a very precise spiritual position"
Dr. Warren says that his site promotes heterosexual marriage because he has done extensive research on it and designed a website for matching heterosexual couples.But Dr. James Dobson has a problem with Dr. Warren not actively speaking out against gay and lesbian couples and marriage. For anyone who knows Dr. Dobson or listens to his daily show, knows that when he speaks out, he really speaks out about something. And he has a HUGE following of people who will do whatever whenever he says to. He has a devout following. (almost as devout as a muslim extremest) If Dr. Dobson says to call your state represenative's office and complain about something, millions of people will call. If he says to boycott a certain product, it will be boycotted for sure. Sort of reminds you of a cult following, it's so devout. If Dr. Neil Clark Warren is a businessman. Now from a strictly business point of view, Dr. Warren made a very good decision to further his business and his customer base when he decided to distance himself from Dr. Dobson and Focus on The Family. Focus holds very narrow political views compared to the Liberal side of our country. Focus holds many spiritual views that most of our country finds odd at the least. Focus speaks out against most non-christian political decisions. You see, Focus on the Family has it's set of beliefs and standards and if you or your organization do not fall within those beliefs and standards, they will speak out against you and in some extreme cases load your switchboard with calls, or mass email you or even boycott your products. Now, by no means am I saying that Focus is wrong, I'm just saying that they have taken a big step to stay in what they believe is the 'right light'. To do what's right, in other words. By taking that step and putting themselves in that position, they have to expect to lose some support from people who have a broader view than Dobson does. If Dr. Warren wants to grow his business, he will first have to throw down anything that would limit him. First and foremost, Focus on the Family and Dr. James Dobson would severely limit him and his companies growth. If Dr. Dobson is hated by most of the more liberal politicians and most of the media and alot of the people in our country, how could a dating service such as eHarmony gain those people as customers if they see that Dr. Dobson and Focus are supported by eHarmony. The answer is clear for eHarmony, dump Focus to boost sales. It would sort of be like if a man was trying to sells weed on the corner of North Philly, if he were clean cut with a blue uniform and a silver badge he wouldn't get many customers, but if that same man put on dingy clothes and was a big more scruffy, his business would boom. It's all in what you are associated with.

King George

This is probably the 5th blog to post this but just incase you didn't see it. Think about this.

How important are you anyway?

I've been thinking about how people make themselves to be self-important. What I mean by that is the way they carry themselves or how they present themselves or who they do not associate with etc. Recently at a church picnic, we were all in line for our buffet style food and the person in charge said, "If we could bow our heads Pastor " " will ask the blessing on the food". I was surprised when I saw that this person never removed his hat for the prayer. Now i've been taught since I was knee high to a camel that you always remove your hat when you pray, when you eat and when you enter a house. My theory on this particular person this time is that I think they were focusing so much on being important and receiving the glory for the 'big day' they planned that they forgot to remove their hat. Yeh i know that praying with your hat on won't send you to hell, it's just that this person actually believes you should remove your hat but this time forgot about it. So back to the self importance... There are many people who make themselves out to be important. I think that that goes along the lines of my theory on those who know alot and those who know little. "Those who know alot will talk little" "Those who know little will talk alot". you do the math.

Down sizing

Ok, so it's final. I'm downsizing my fish collection and their habitats. My two Motaguensis are leaving me no later than Monday May 16 and one of my 75g setups is going the follwing week. I am keeping my Dovii in my original setup. Wish me good luck in catching him. He is 12+ inches and super aggressive. My Motaguensis pair are laying eggs as I write and they are up to about 500 and counting. So I will have some babies to raise in my 29g tank that I'm keeping for now. That's my excitement for now and yes.. you are right.. its not taht exciting.. its been one of those couple months.

Happy Mother's Day, Momma

Well, it's here again Mom, it's your day. Your day to be pampered and to relax and to celebrate you being the greatest mom. And yeah, you've been greater than any mom could, you've taught more and advised more than any other. I wouldn't trade our time together for anything in the world. Momma, I miss your terribly, when I need to turn to someone, all the important people are out of my life. When there is something significant that I want to tell, the excitement fades fast when I realize that anyone who'd genuinely care is gone. Yeh, Mom, sure there are people who would listen, but I don't want that. I will never have what you gave me again. I was the world. The kisses on the head when I was home from school sick. The love when I was hurt by someone else. The fun times and the laughs. Mom it was the words and now it's gone. I sit here and wonder what is supposed to happen now. I know its almost 8 years later but the hurt and emptiness is still there. I've needed you in the last few months and you're gone but the love is always there!! I'll see you someday but i'm not there yet! Well Mom, if there is anyway to get you the message "Happy Mother's Day".

You're in a better place, I've heard a thousand times
And at least a thousand times I've rejoiced for you
But the reason why I'm broken, the reason why I cry
Is how long must I wait to be with you

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

Help me Lord cause I don't understand your ways
The reason why I wonder if I'll ever know
But, even if you showed me, the hurt would be the same
Cause I'm still here so far away from home

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

In Christ, there are no goodbye
And in Christ, there is no end
So I'll hold onto Jesus with all that I have
To see you again
To see you again

And I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won't you give me strength to make it through somehow

I've never been more homesick than now

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Yes im still here

Just a note that I am still alive. I'll be sure to let you know if that changes.

Whew!

Ok, not that anyone remembers what im talking about. But I got over all my Birthday disappointments. And things are back to normal. I know you're thinking.. "wow that's a warped state of normal". But it's normal to us. :) Anyway. Have mixed feelings about my aquariums after I spent the night in the yard cleaning, grooming and fixing the machines used to do that, I enjoyed myself. Maybe it's a sign of getting old and hopeless, I spend evening in the yard fixing lawn mowers, cutting the grass and watering flowers, alone, and enjoy myself. If that seems to be a concern.. then save me, I may be falling into my 50's before I hit 25!! But im sure i'm ok, i think