Politics

I'm not a political person and I don't identify with the right or the left. I don't care about your Political Facebook posts or your favorite celebrity nagging on twitter. I do vote as my right to do so, but I feel like my votes get lost in the electoral college anyways. Not saying I am against my state's political point of view. I go strictly based on what the candidate is selling. If you are planning to tax me from my couch, such as the entertainment tax that imposed on Netflix, then you lost my vote. I don't mind paying taxes, but I shouldn't be charged more if the government does not know how to handle their money and the city is looking for ways to charge more for lost pension plans. If you are giving away my internet to big corporations who will more than likely regulate speeds on specific websites, then you lost my vote again. I think big corporations are undertaxed if they are taxed at all. Big corporations like to avoid taxes by offshore accounts or imposing lobbying money to candidates to keep their tax-free laws in place.



I am not saying don't vote or not to support social issues, but I am saying is to keep it balanced. Vote both Republican and Democrat parties. Don't pick a side because of Red or Blue. Pick a side that sides with what you want.

Text Messaging is Taking Over.

Who has made a phone call today?

Who has sent a text message today?

Who has sent over ten text messages today?

I can say that text messages are slowly taking over if they haven’t already.

I was at one of my daughter’s performances about healthy eating. I was surrounded by strangers. I try to have friendly conversations with the people who sat next to me. One side I had a nice little old Spanish lady and on the other side I had a guy who didn’t look much younger then me, someone I could relate to. The little Old Spanish lady, let’s call her Guadalupe, was really, really, nice. Guadalupe had a child in a bilingual class and was performing along with my daughter. I still don’t know how I was able to gather all that information from her, but I know that I had a great conversation with her to know that stuff.

The young man on my opposite side was locked on his phone the whole time. I would try to make whatever little conversation I could with him, but all I would get back was a chuckle or one-word answers.

“Is your child performing?”

“Yes”

“Are they on stage now?”

“No.”

“Is there really a child?”

Chuckles. Yes. 

It drove me nuts, but I started to notice it around me. Older people were chattering and the younger people were glued to their phone. I started to think about it more.

Text messages are currently taking over today’s society. Just a generation ago, it would be home phones. There are so many things that could possibly be wrong with this. I will explore a few. Such as social skills, confidence, and even over all distraction in everything!

I can understand why people text more. It takes away all the confidence one needs for a phone call and lowers the anxiety that is needed to prepare for the call. I think that it will destroy the ability to have conversation with one another. Can you imagine what it might be ten years from now?

“Hey Matt, it’s DR. Smith. The test results are back. You have an STD.  Frowning face, Frowning.”

Or “Hey Matt, you’ve been promoted. Happy face, happy face.”

Or even the character emojis

“Tombstone, tombstone, old lady.”

That could possibly indicate that Grandma died.

I understand that no one wants to be stuck in awkward conversations but there are some things that are better said via phone call.

I also think that people who don’t send personal texts can be sending it to multiple people. That could lead up to single people with overwhelm responses from strangers. I think that people it would be more flattering to be called especially from the amount courage it takes to call someone. I remember cold calling people and trying set up dates.

“Hey Amy, this is Matt.”

“Hi Matt, this is Amy’s mom. I’ll go get her.”

“Shoot. “

“Hi Matt!”

“What are you doing later?”

“Nothing.”

“Okay, cool! I’ll talk to you later. “

I remember sweating profusely by the end of those conversations.

Distractions;

I was on my way to work and had plans on taking this beautiful girl out afterwards. Yes, I asked her out over a phone call. I was sitting at a red light on this beautiful Tuesday afternoon. Everything was coming out great. Then it happened. I was rear ended by a driver who was responding a text message. I was pushed into the guy in front of me. The texting-driver was very apologetic but I wasn’t. He had just totaled my car. He took off before the police came and my day was ruined. I didn’t make it to work or my date.  Needless to say, neither did my car.

In conclusion, I feel that our generation is building a need for texting and that is breaking down our ability to have spontaneous conversation with one another and that is killing another brain cell with the technology that we carry in our pockets. Do not get me wrong, I love my big phone but as human beings, we need the ability to socialize with one another. I also feel that it is taking our attention away from our everyday world and we forget to enjoy the little things anymore. We should all be like Guadalupe.

Thank you.

How To Catch the Stanley Cup!

    As a Chicagoan, we have seen our share of championships with our beloved team, Chicago Blackhawks. I love the team; I have since Chris Chelios era, which was throughout the 90s. I love hockey. I can recall getting my first roller blades and tried them on the ice. It didn’t end well, but I wanted it to.

    My daughter was born the day that they won the cup on June 9, 2010 . She was born a day earlier than the expected date and my dad, who is a sports fan all over, speculates that it was to watch this game. It was the greatest day in both of our lives. I made it a mission to get a picture her and the cup. I can say I successfully had and in 2010, 2013, and 2015. So my daughter can be apart of the dynasty.



    In 2010, I followed the news and Google ‘Stanley Cup’ on a daily basis. They finally announced that it would be at the Pride Parade. My daughter wasn’t even a month old, so I really didn’t want to stand out in the heat or anything. We hung out in a restaurant near the end of the parade and when we knew that the Parade was coming to the end, we were able to jet to where the floats started to park by the curb. This was a success. We saw Former Blackhawk, Brent Sopel unload the float and handed the cup to a man standing by a limo. I grabbed my daughter from the stroller and ran up to him and got a picture. Unfortunately, it was bright out and my cellphone was a potato but I still feel good about this one.

    In 2013, I did the same method and followed the news. This time it was a public viewing at one of Chicago’s biggest tourist attractions, Millennium Park. She was three now and a little more manageable. My brother and I took her and we knew it was going to be huge so we showed up a little early. I think the event started at 10am and we showed up around 8:30am. The line was closed off shortly after we got there. After about four to five hours, we got our picture. It was free and there was more of a guarantee then trying to catch it exiting the float. The gentlemen who surrounded the cup were also very generous and just kept snapping photos so we also have a ton of photos from that day.

    In 2015, I used the some methods and the same research before we found it at a church event. My daughter is now five. This event was open to the public, who paid a donation. At this point, I was already two for two and I needed to be three for three so I adhered to the donation and policies to see the cup. The donation only included one pose but we had 3 photos delivered to us with us doing different things in the photo, so it was worth the donation. We were in and out in less then an hour and they were very generous.

So, if you are ever looking for the Cup, don't feel helpless. I recommend you to do your homework and plan ahead. This is easily the greatest thing that I have ever done and pretty simply. My daughter can say she is the Stanley Cup baby. 

A hobby of sorts...

A Hobby of Sorts…

I had a ton of hobby’s growing up. Mostly involved collecting. As a child, I can recall having a cigar box filled with used stamps. They had all sorts of pictures and were very interesting to me. I also had a large baseball card collection, which I continue to drag around with me throughout all my moves. I also recently gave up collecting comic books. I had a ton of them and majority of them, I’ve only read once.

My newfound hobby was autograph collecting. I always browsed helpful forums containing information about upcoming celebrity signings. I love collecting from the people who inspired me to be the guy I am today. They either taught me something I will never forget or did something I had admire. I begin getting certain comics or books signed my favorite authors or CDs signed by my favorite artists. I have admittedly confronted several of these guys in public, but having the respect and even sometimes star stuck would strongly prevent me from approaching them. I often run into these celebrities at my place of work. Brandy rapped at me once. Yes, she did. I got to talk to Nascar driving Danica Patrick about online radio. I masked my excitement well.

I haven’t chased after any autographs in a while. I did start collecting the entire 2010 Chicago Blackhawks for my daughter due to her birthday falling on the same day as the victory of the Stanley Cup. I waited many hours in all sorts of lines waiting for their signatures and even tried catching some at public events. I even donated blood a few times in hopes to catch a couple. I begin to build my daughter a scrapbook that has a bunch of cut outs and pictures. I think the most memorable thing in that collection was her picture with the Stanley Cup. We went to the Gay Pride Parade, hearing about its appearance at on a float. We ended up taking a quick pic with it, as it was being place in a limo. My daughter was just a couple of months old so she was petite compared to that cup. Several Hawk players were really generous on responding to my request for autographs for her collection as well. That was an idea given to me by a friend when I realize some players were traded to far off teams. 

I am not currently working on this hobby. Lately, it has been this blog and watching random movies.

At The Movies!

AT the Movies!

I have spent a great portion of my life watching flicks. I can recall times where my father took us to the cheap shows. It was at the crappy theatre of the town. I like to think that’s where all the movie reels from the expensive theatre would end up. It would have the new movies weeks after they have already been viewed at the newer theaters for dirt-cheap. One of the earliest movies, I can remember is Jurassic Park. It had to be around 1993, the year Jurassic Park came out, and I wasn’t even 10 years of age then. We really wanted to see it and our father took us. The filmstrip ended up burning in the reel and we had a pass to see another showing of JP at a later time. I do remember seeing Fantasia and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well. With a Father, who worked over nights, would fall asleep during these showings and we would have to constantly keep waking him up so we would not get into too much trouble for the loud snoring.

When I got a bit older, I started to build my own collection. Someone gave me a gift of a DVD player. I bought Gone In 60 seconds with Nicholas Cage, Broken Arrow with John Travolta and the cartoon movie, Shrek. I have seen all those movies a hundred plus times since I couldn’t afford new movies. I would only buy movies that I really wanted to see again. I hardly bought stuff that I haven’t seen unless I was familiar with the director or actors involved. I eventually ended up with a wall of movies that would surprise anybody who came over. Around that time, I would also make it a weekend ritual to go the movies and catch cheap matinees. For a movie that came out on Friday for ten plus bucks a ticket, I would catch it the very next morning for four bucks or less. Even if I have seen everything I wanted to see at the show, I would watch something I haven’t seen, even if I didn’t know what to expect.

I eventually got to a point where I had given up, and sold majority of my collection. The people I sold my collection to, ran a movie resale shop. They constantly repeated the joke, “With this much, we can open a new shop”. I guess it was an addiction. In a world where movie streaming is king, I try not to spend so much on movies. I do hope to get my daughter into the entertainment of motion pictures. I even started off her collection by collecting every cartoon Disney movie made. I even had this movie podcast as well with my brother, called MuvCast where we would talk about flicks we have seen or information about flicks.

Creepy Church Carnival

Creepy Church Carnival

I used to live by this church that looks like an architect’s masterpiece with the exception of the weird abortion poster on the side of the building. It displayed a naked infant, lying on his/her stomach with an extended arm, with the line “Take my hand, not my life”. That conjured up several thoughts including “Is that baby real?” or “I wonder if that was a safe haven child.” I always imagine the crazy characters that protest those antiabortion clinics begin there. Ironically years later, I came across this place again for a carnival. There was a large box van parked on the street with the back cab open. It had the words Merry Go Round Spray painted on the back wall of the cab.

 I didn’t think much of it, except a Sunday night filled with entertainment for my family. I decided to check this place out, forgetting about the past thoughts. As my wife, kid, and I entered the church’s parking lot that contained an outside market place, we decided to cruise the tents filled with cheap merchandise and ended up buying a toy to please the pursuing child. We finally get out to the playing field where the carnie games are with some of the rides. I have several experiences in arguing with carnie game attendants, so I tried to avoid them at all cost, so I dragged my child on some rides. The first ride we hit up is a Ferris wheel. Old and wobbly but we survive. The toddler enjoyed herself if you can look passed her look of fear every time she saw skyline oppose to ground.  When we finally got out of the Ferris wheel cab, I quickly dragged her to the next toddler friendly ride, which was a circling coaster. She was open to the thought of jumping into a cart with daddy, but in a matter of moments of the ride beginning, I found her face shoved in my kidney. That sort of set the tone for the rest of her trip. She refused to go onto any rides. We tried to get her on a kiddy cars ride, but she objected and we had to find a ride quick to use up the shredded tickets of the ride operator. We saw a mirror maze across the way. The Mirror Maze operator was this scary guy name Bob. Bob had sleeves of tattoos of curved words. Something you wouldn’t expect at a church carnival. He was friendly and sent us on our way. We quickly got through the mirror corners and found a set of rusted stairs. At the top of the stairs was a short walk of fun mirrors that lead to a slide. The slide was awesome. So much so, the toddler raced back into the mirror maze to try this again. I followed her. Unfortunately, even after already conquering this maze, she still managed to run into a mirror and occasionally get stuck and cried for help. When getting off of the slide for the third time, we had to pull her away.

Upon exiting, we found the ultimate slide! About two million feet in the air, the child found her sanctuary. She didn’t mind the 2 billion steps up to the slide and was overjoyed and ready to climb again after every time. We convince her to leave by saying we needed to feed the dog at home. As we were rounding the corner to the front of the church, we came across the creepy, weird, abortion sign. I guess antiabortion campaigns aren’t so bad.

Chicago

Today, I realize how proud I am to live in this belletristic city. Sometimes it’s not always the cool things to see around the city so much it is the people.  For example, here is some of the things, I encountered today on my way to work.

I’ve come across a man asking for change. He was sitting on a fire hydrant, sitting next to a gas can. Assumable, he needed gas. I had to deny him, due to my lack of carrying cash. I continue on my daily routine and ran into the gas station and retrieve a giant one-buck ice tea. Upon my return, the man was already at a gas pump, filling his can, while talking to a man in a high-end car. I guess it was an Escalade, but I don’t know jack about cars. Continuing my journey to work. Across the street, I race downstairs to the subway station. Paid my fares and found a seat on a bench next to a young lady. I really didn’t know anything about this young lady. In moments, she’d receive a phone call. During the call, she mentions that her warranty doesn’t cover what was wrong with her car. She said she wanted to go back to her old one. She also mention that she would stop paying her loan, which I, being familiar with loan processes, knew that would just add on to the problems she already had. She kept making references to dad and comments, such as “I know, mother” which would conclude that she was talking to her mom. She finally hangs up with her mom and the train pulls up.

            Upon entering the train, the first thing that catches your attention is the homeless man, laid out on a few seats, forcing people to stand. Including myself. He was clutched on a duffle bag and looked horrific. Over grown beard, wore out clothes, and a stench that kept everyone on the other side of the car. I ended up snagging a seat next to an elderly gentleman. Then our on board entertainment begin. A six-foot black man begins to sing out loud to whatever he was listening to. I believe I would’ve gotten along with him otherwise, because of the Star Wars T-shirt he was sporting and a zombie tattoo on his leg. His singing caused me to put on my headphones. Since, I am drumming on my leg to the song on my headphones, I totally missed the elderly begging me to move so he could get off. I finally notice his angry stare and quickly moved out into the aisle without taking off my headphones to avoid listening to his profanity.

            Finally, it comes to my stop. I couldn’t be happier. After, step dancing with the singing Star Wars fan, I raced up the stairs to catch my bus. I was the only one at the stop, with a colorful line of Taxicabs. Minutes have passed and there’s now a group of us looking upon the colorful cabs. Bus finally arrives and chases the cabs around the corner, almost like a lion chases antelope. Being first at the stop, some how made me last on the bus, but I didn’t care, since I would be in a matter of stops. The bus apparently comes across a mental training facility, because there are always a bunch of mentally challenge folks. Literally. Since, I have been making the same commute for the past eight years, I have seen several of these faces before. Some say hi, but most of them stay silent. I think it’s mainly because they are shy. Which they shouldn’t be, because being different is something everyone has in common with everyone. I am pretty sure, they are much smarter than the majority of the humans, I do know anyways. I, eventually, get to my job and begin my workday.

Who can disagree with on road entertainment like this? I know I enjoy it, more than my whole workday combine, with the exception of payday.