cell phones

Anyone that knows me well has been aware of my on going battle with Verizon. The short version for those of you that don't is this. I have been due a upgrade for about a month now with Verizon, my cell phone provider. Now the phone that I have been using is a old flip-phone I had two or three contracts ago. That is because I gave the phone that I had to my daughter Emily after her's fell apart due to texting and heavy usage. I called Verizon and begged them to allow me to upgrade early but their answer was no. So, I was faced with either buying her a new phone at full retail price (wasn't happening) or give her my old clamshell (flip-phone) or give her my current phone and I use the old flip-phone. I weighed the choice's and I just couldn't bring myself to say "Here's your new phone Em until we can upgrade you in six months" and give her the clamshell. She would have been taunted in school. Teased everytime she had to pull it out. Ashamed to use it in public. Her friends would be texting on full qwerty keypads and Emily would have been tapping out T9. As a parent you don't want to think of your kids being at a disadvantage and being "behind" their peers. My other choice, give her mine and I use the flip-phone. Now let me tell ya friends, that was a struggle! I loved my phone. Everything about it. It was my friend, my companion. I didn't leave the house without it. It was always in my hand or within close reach. It did everything and I loved it. There was NO way I could part with my friend!! But then the image of Emily on the playground at school trying to text a friend with my old flip-phone would pop in my head. Emily struggling to tap out a basic message and all the other kids laughing and pointing at her while Emily's face flushed with embarrasment. As her father I just could not allow myself to subject my girl to that so I did what any father (I think) would have done. I gave her my Samsung Rogue. I was sick! I was losing my friend. As I boxed it up to send to her I think I cried. My hands were shaking! I was in total dismay and shock. My phone had become like a drug and I was giving it up cold turkey. Needless to say, Emily was VERY happy. She had always loved my phone and wanted one just like it. Now she was getting it! She did feel bad about taking it and didn't want to at first. She said "Dad, I can't take your phone, you love your phone". I swallowed the lump in my throat and said "Thanks Em, but it's yours". So I got the flip-phone that should not have been in my closet stored away but instead on display somewhere in a early cell phone exhibit. My face was the one flushing with shame whenever I pulled it out to make a call or tap out a T9 text. Friends at work laughed at me, teased me about it, some felt sorry for me and tried to give me older but not THAT old phones they had (Thanks Mike :). I was back to the basics. Anyway, back to the point I'm at today. I became eligible to upgrade my phone a few weeks back and I was looking at the Verizon website oogling and drooling over the newest phones they offered. But looking at the phones, I noticed that all they nicer phones REQUIRED the customer to purchase a data plan with the cheapest one offered at 9.99. I called and spoke to a company rep and they said that was the new Verizon policy now. Any "smartphone" required that you buy a data plan to go along with it. Well, the Whaley temper flew into me and I let that girl have it. I told her exactly what I thought of that decision and my days with Verizon were over! I calmed down some after we hung up and did some research. She was correct, that was indeed Verizon's new policy. I emailed corporate, I called back and spoke with other customer service reps. But that was the new policy and I could only complain. I looked at other companies and Verizon was the only one that had coverage up where my kids are so I was stuck. But something funny had happened during the months I had been using my old phone. Once I had gotten over the shock and pain of losing my phone that did it all I discovered that I didn't really NEED a phone that did it all. My old phone did exactly what a phone should do. Great reception, didn't drop calls and other then taking a little while longer to text, it did that okay too. I'll admit, I'm the first one drooling when the new phones come out that "do everything". I went to a Verizon store a couple of weeks ago and was getting the sales pitch for the new Droid X. As I held it I started getting that old feeling back, kinda like reuniting with a old flame. I gotta say, it's a nice phone but do I really NEED a phone that does all that? No, I don't. Using my old flipper got me to thinking back before I had a cell phone. Man I cursed those things. I cursed people that used them out in public. I would tailgate and blow the horn at someone driving in front of me that was talking on one. I swore I would never have one and I held out for along time. I remember when I got my first one my kids were in shock. Dad has a cell phone! Can you believe that? I had rallied so against them and then I joined the ranks of the cell phone owners. I'm the guy now riding down the road talking or texting. Well, anyway, I finally ordered my new one yesterday from the Verizon website. It was free with a two year upgrade. No bells or whistles but it does what it's suppose to do I guess. And whats better, no data plan!! And who knows, maybe after this one I can quit completely.

Friday Nite Video (George Strait-Baby's Gotten Good at Goodbye)

Hello peeps. It's Friday night and you all know what that means. It's time for my Friday nights video pick. I've up to this point covered several different kinds of music except tonights. Tonight is country music night. I gotta confess, I used to listen to ALOT of country music. I don't listen to ANY of it anymore. Why? Too darn depressing! Since my life BECAME what most country songs touch on I just can't listen to it anymore. You know, the wife left, the kids left, the dog left, lost the house, etc,etc. You get the idea. If it's someone that just came out within the last few years then I don't know who they are. Period. Done with it. Upbeat and positive for me now haha. Anyway, I always did enjoy George Strait. He was one of my favorite performers. He's had so many number 1 songs(57 of them so far) it's hard to list a favorite. Tonights video would have to be one of my all time favorites by King George though. It's from his 1989 album Beyond the Blue Neon (which I had). It's Baby's Gotten Good at Goodbye. Enjoy!

Scary Movies

I like scary movies. Always have, probably always will. Why? I'm not sure but I think it was instilled in me as a little guy. For those of you that don't know, I have two older brothers, Greg and Kirk. A older sister named Joy. And a younger sister named Kimberly. Now the one older brother Kirk, seen below with my sister Joy, used to take delight in coming home on the weekends and dragging me out of bed (without my parents knowledge) to watch the late night horror movies that would come on. I remember Chiller Theater that would come on on Friday nights quite well! That's where I first saw the movie Psycho with good old Norman Bates. What a great movie for such a little kid as myself to watch, right? Well, this went on for quite some time and I noticed after awhile that I started LIKING the movies. I saw all the old Hammer Studios classics. A lot of the old black and white classics too! I remember the older siblings would go out to see the newest horror movie that would be playing at the local theater and I would beg for them to take me. No way! I was too young. The dreaded words every kid hated to hear. Anyway, as time went on I keep enjoying whatever scary movie would come on the tv. Remember, this was before VCR's, computers or any of the other things we enjoy today. We watched whatever came on. My favorite one's were the Christopher Lee Dracula movies produced by Hammer Studios. He made five of those and I own four of them today on DVD (the fifth one has never been released). I would also beg my mother for one of the old Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines that came out back in the day when ever we went somewhere that sold books and magazines. They always focused on the old black and white classic monsters from Universal. Dracula, Wolfman, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the classics! Remember being in school and getting the weekly reader papers that allowed us students to purchase books from? My picks were always scary stories or old movie monsters books. Even today I love a good scary movie. I guess it all goes back to my younger days when my brother Kirk would drag me outta bed to watch whatever with him. My son Lorenzo shares the same interest in scary movies as I do. I would let him "stay up" when he was young to watch something that was on TV late when he to should have been in bed. We both like to go to the movies and get the daylights scared out of ourselves and when it's all over we laugh and say "Wow, good movie"! I guess like father like son.

Friday Nite Video (Pink Floyd-Take it Back)

Hello peeps! Its friday night and that means it my OLD SKOOL VIDEO PICK!!!! This week goes out to a band in a class all to themselves. Pink Floyd. One of my all time favorite bands. How would you classify the music these guys make? Rock? Jazz? Psychedelic? These guys cover all the above. I have two older brothers who are twelve and ten years older then me. They were into early Pink Floyd and I remember playing their PF albums on their stereo when they weren't home.I remember thinking "Wow, these guys are really out there". My brothers had the typical early 70's stereo with the big floor speakers at opposite ends of the room and the sound effects on their albums was incredible. Pink Floyds The Dark Side Of The Moon album stayed on the billboard top 100 list for like a decade. It was and remains one of the most popular albums of all times. Fast forward to 1994. Pink Floyd had just released the album The Division Bell in 1993. Soon after, they announced a concert tour. I and my now ex debated buying the expensive tickets but we did. Wow, what a show! The tour was named the Pulse tour and it was a once in a lifetime experience. We saw them at the old veterans stadium in Philadelphia and we were right on the field not far from the stage. These guys played for three hours! If I never see another concert in my life I can say I was at one of the best ever. It was worth every penny we had spent to be a part of that. The song I picked for this week is from The Division Bell album titled Take it Back. It's also a live version from the pulse tour that we attended. It was soooooo hard to come up with just one song from these guys, I love so many. Anyway here it is. From 1994, Take it Back. Enjoy!

Friday Nite Video (Public Enemy-Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos)

Okay peeps, this week we crank it up a little. Unless you've known me for a very long time, most people don't know I like rap music. Love it really. Not so much the stuff out today but REAL rap. Rap from back in the day. I remember when I heard the first rap song ever recorded, Rapper's Delight, by the Sugar Hill Gang. Wow, it was amazing when that came out. A "new" style of music that included talking and rhyming to music. It was a hit and rap music was born! Sugar Hill gang had several my songs to follow up Rappers Delight. Then other rappers started cashing in on this new craze of music. RUN-DMC, LL Cool J, Whodini and others came on the scene and were very successful. Rap was fun, light and rappers loved dissing other rappers. Throw your hands up in the air and that kind of stuff. But then the group Public Enemy come on the scene and these guys were mad! They rapped about serious issues affecting young, mostly black, people of the time. Their songs dealt with social injustices that had been and were still happening at the time. They sang songs that dealt with very political issues. Lead man Chuck D was their voice. Colorful Flavor Flav was like a clown dancing around stage with them, always with a big clock hanging around his neck, asking "What time is it". Their music was featured in Spike Lee's film Do the Right Thing. In the background while Chuck D and Flavor were doing there thing was the S1W's, a group of militant "soldiers". The whole thing just added to a in your face presence these guys had. In 1989 they released It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. That album brought PE from the back burner to full fledged Rap stars. It sold millions of copies and is still considered one of the most ground breaking rap albums of all time. I know I wore my copy out. Me and my friends knew all the words by heart to all the songs. I had my leather Pubic Enemy Logo necklace I wore. PE was just the bomb! I loved all the songs on that album. They covered so many social ills on it. But I think if I had to pick my favorite one it would be the one I chose for this weeks video of the week, Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos. Watch it and see what YOU think. PE in the house Boy!!! Enjoy!

Autumn

When the sun sets early for the day,
dropping out of sight too soon.
The air changes too, coolness comes out.
I breath in deeply, feeling the coolness deep inside me.
Dried up leaves swirl around in a whirlwind before they break
away and disappear around the corner, out of sight.
Kids run around playing games before the night,
comes early and sends them inside all to soon.
The darkness that comes seems heavy,
covering everything like a thick blanket.
Lights struggle to penetrate it's thickness.
I can hear the bare branches of the tree outside,
scratching against each other every time the wind gust up.
Everyone settles in for the night.
Soon the sun will rise and the darkness will leave.

10 random things I like

1-A good meal
2-A good movie
3-A good book
4-A beautiful sunset
5-Riding to nowhere in particular
6-Dressing up for special occasions
7-A women who likes to dress up for that same special occasion
8-People that exert self confidence
9-A woman who is beautiful because of who she is inside
10-Friends that are there anytime that can be counted on

Friday Nite Video (Kutless-Promise of a Lifetime)

Okay, this weeks pick is not really that old. It certainly can't be called old school cause the song is only three years old. But, looking back on when I first heard the song "Promise of a Lifetime" by Kutless, it seems like a very long time ago. Flash back to March 2008. I had just been told some stuff that completely changed my world. Everything that I was and had been up to that point was suddenly gone. Changed forever. Every clique you can imagine came into play. Sucker punched in the gut, the wind gone from my sails, everything turned on its head, you get the idea. I was reeling. I really didn't know if I was coming or going. I was in a tailspin and I was sinking rapidly. Then one day I was driving somewhere in my truck when I started playing with the radio. It stopped on one of the local christian radio stations and there was some talking going on and then this song came on. I really almost had to stop my truck. It was amazing! It was like these guy's were singing this song just for me! The words hit on just what I was feeling and going through. The song talks about whatever this life throws your way can be gotten through with the help of God almighty. There are trials and tribulations to this life but if we ask Christ into our hearts he promises to never leave us. I had done that as a teenager but never had I felt his presence as strong as I did that day when I first heard that song. Yes, my troubles were and still are here. But I know everything will be all right and brighter days are ahead. I think we have to go through some storms to enjoy the "good" weather when it's here. Kutless never did release a video of this song. The one I'm showing is one that someone put together to the song. If you wanna see the band doing some of their other songs put their name in YouTube and check them out. They are a cool band. Anyway, here's my pick for this week, Promise of a Lifetime by Kutless. Enjoy!

Friday Nite Video (Prince-Beautiful Ones)

This week I just gotta go with a video from one of my favorite artist that just happens to also be from one of my favorite movies. The artist is Prince and the movie is Purple Rain. PR came out in 1984 and it was unbelievable. I had been a Prince fan before that and liked all of his earlier stuff. The album before PR was 1999 and it was great. We would listen to that riding around in our cars (on cassette tape of course). We would party like it was 1999 and sing along while pretending WE had a little red corvette BUT when Purple Rain came out it was like nothing we had ever seen. Prince and the Revolution took the world by storm back in 1984. He defined coolness. Girls loved him. Guys wanted to be like him. Every song on that album was a hit. We went to the movie. We knew the words to the songs by heart. That was a magical time then. Prince continued to release albums and with each album he released he seemed to change his image. His follow up movie Under the Cherry Moon was paned by critics but I liked it. Everyone wanted Prince to remain the royal purple one but he refused to be put in that box. Purple Rain was but one of his many musical directions he took and he's still going today. My video pick is my favorite song from Purple Rain. The Beautiful One''s. I don't think I have ever seen a performer put so much emotion into a song as Prince does this one. You can feel the frustration he's feeling. You know he loves her. He just wants to know if she feels the same. Enjoy.

Well it's here

Finally, a little relief here in Florida. When I wrote about the month of September being the month of endings I spoke of that coming morning when you would go out to leave for work and you would feel the temperature change in the air as summer started to fade. Well, this morning of the 30Th was our first morning of feeling a difference in the air. Not cool by any means but comfortable. No humidity. That first reminder that falls a coming. I also stand corrected about the mention of daylight savings taking place near the end of the month. I forgot that congress changed all that up a couple years ago to give us a few more weeks before the blues and depression would set in. Tomorrow's October 1st. Let the fall weather begin!

Old sckool video pick of the week (Kiss-Sure Know Something)

Growing up as a kid of the 70s it was hard to not like Kiss. Almost everyone I knew loved them. I certainly did. We could debate for hours about which band member was the best. Gene the demon (my favorite). Ace the spaceman. Peter the cat (which I never really understood, why a cat?). Or lead singer Paul the star. You could join the Kiss army for around 10 bucks a year and become a card carrying member. There were make-up kits you could buy that would transform you into your hero. Anything Kiss related flew off the shelves. It was tough for me though because my mother HATED Kiss and would not allow me to have any of their posters up, I couldn't have any of their records. Well that was like the forbidden fruit. I would sneak magazines into the house about them. I made cassette recordings of their songs from my friends albums. I HAD to have my KISS fix. I still to this day swear Beth was one of the greatest songs ever recorded. My video pick of the week is Sure Know Something from the album Dynasty. Enjoy!

September

If I had to pick the month I dislike the most it would have to be September. For me September is the month of endings. The closer month. As a kid I always dreaded the thought of September because you knew labor day was coming soon after September 1st and that meant the end of summer or more importantly, the end of summer vacation. Remember leaving school on your last day of the school year thinking "Wow, two and a half glorious months of no school"! September was sooo far away you couldn't even think about it. Well no matter what it always arrived. Summer vacation would end. A new school year would start. Classes always got tougher. Work loads got heavier. For most of the month I tried to adjust. Back to a schedule, back to having homework, back to taking orders from some teacher that you really didn't like and everyone laughed at when they were out of earshot or while their back was turned while they wrote on the blackboard. Ah September, the cruelest month of the year. Now as a adult I really don't like it any better. I know summer is on its last leg. Starting to get winded. Starting to loosen it's grip just a little at a time until you go out one morning to leave for work and you think "Brrr, its a little chilly". Even the plants you had so painstakingly taken care over the summer by watering, pruning, fertilizing and tending to are getting tired. Flowers start to fade, leaves losing that dark green color and being replaced with brown withering leafs. If plants could talk they would be saying "I'm so tired, I just want to sleep now. Ive given you beauty and color all summer but I'm just too tired to continue". Trees, the kings and queens of the botanical world, give us one more glimpse of their awe and splendor through their leafs before dropping them to the ground as the trees say goodnight. See ya next year. As the month continues the days start to shorten and your internal clock starts to take notice that something is going on here. Then just as your depression starts to deepen that cursed thing known as daylight savings time happens. Fall back. That's when everything goes haywire. Your body is thrown into absolute turmoil as you try to adjust to the new time patterns. Suddenly we are lethargic all the time. We finish every sentence with a yawn. Our outlooks become grim. Suddenly, we are no longer optimist, we became pessimists almost over night. The kids get cranky. The pets no longer want to play like before. We drive home from work in the dark. We have dinner and think "Gosh, it must be 10:00 o'clock". Then we look and it's only 6:30. Quick, light meals become replaced with heavy carbs and starchy "comfort" foods. Comfort cause that's about the only thing we can derive any comfort from. Stews, casseroles, meats and potatoes replace the foods we just finished enjoying over the summer. It's the end of summer. Winter's right around the corner hiding, awaiting its turn. He can't wait to make us suffer and curse him and his frigidness. That's the sadness of September. Summer is still fresh on our minds but we know we are in the month of endings.

The Stranger (or was he)?

I was in the store the other day doing some shopping and this guy comes up to me and says's, "Don't I know you from somewhere"? I, not recognizing this guy but not wanting to be rude said " I don't know". Well, the guy was pretty insistent with me. "I know you from somewhere, I just can't put my finger on it". "Your name is Bob or Mike or something like that, right?" No, I answered. Not even close. "Are you sure you know me" I asked the guy. " Yeah" the guy says. "We used to work together or something". I started studying this guys features and got to thinking, gosh, maybe he does know me. Nothing about the guy was ringing any bells with me. Did I meet him one night at a party I thought to myself? Was I introduced once to this guy someplace and he had a better memory then I did? He was dressed a little to nicely to be doing some grocery shopping I thought to myself. He sported what looked to be a Italian silk smoking jacket. Under that was a cotton dress shirt that had been neatly pressed before putting on. Sensible pants with slip-on loafers on his feet. Could I have met this guy at a social function of some sorts? Was he a banking officer somewhere where I had once applied for a loan. By now I had started to get a little uncomfortable. I'm such a idiot I thought to myself. With my mind racing I glanced down to see what he had in his shopping cart. Things I would never buy nor would anyone else that I knew. He had a bag of pre-rinsed organic field greens picked in the mountains of Tibet by young gregorian chanting monks in training trying to raise money to pay for their continued enlightenment. There was a bottle of sauvignon blanc wine shipped from the napa valley. A box of frozen vegan patties that had a picture of a cow crying tears of joy while thanking the buyer for saving his life. A loaf of gluten free wheat and oat bread made by artisan bakers baked in clay ovens from the old world that had a slogan that said Man CAN live on OUR bread alone. Some tofu and beansprouts to make some sandwiches. A block of cheese made from the milk of the yemen mountain goat, made by the master cheese makers of Yemen who had been making cheese for centuries. As I quickly looked up I noticed the gentleman had been looking at the contents of my cart as well. A bag of pre-rinsed Dole iceberg lettuce. A six pack of Old Milwaukee. A box of frozen beef patties that had a picture of a cow crying as he was being led away by a couple stern looking guys while the cow's family watches and also is crying. A loaf of white wonder bread. A pack of Oscar Mayer baloney to make some sandwiches. A tub of helluva good cheese spread. He too quickly looked up and studied me once again. "You know, I might have you mistaken for someone else" he said to me. "Yeah, I think you did" was my answer to him. "If you would excuse me then" he said. Sure I answered. "Have a good day friend" I said as I turned and continued my shopping.