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.

Scam Artists via Social Engineer.

Scam artists

I have always been a fan of Social Engineering. That is the trait of making someone believe you are someone that you are not. I am not a professional at the trait but I have used it to my advantage in high school. I used to make copies of class change forms and stole class codes from my fellow classmates. I would constantly fill out the forms and would convince school officials to sign the form. Anyone could get it approved, from the principal to a counselor, with help from my friends and teachers, who wrote the recommendations that would get an approval. I would then take that form to the a little Asian guy hidden in a room in the back of the school, who inputs the information in the computer. Days later, I would pick up my new school I.D. card. I would always aim for someone different each time so I didn’t get recognize the follow times. I was aiming to have eight I.D. cards for each one of the lunch periods throughout the day. It was my senior year and I had a bunch of classes to make up and the best way was to do it on lunch. Needless to say, I graduated.

I admire Frank Abagnale. Frank was the idea behind the movie, Catch Me If You Can. Tom Hanks and Leonardo Dicarpio, who played Frank, starred the movie. Frank’s parents go through a tough divorce and Frank ran away from home. He begins making a living on pretending to be multiple experts, anything from being a pilot, doctor, and even a Lawyer. The feds follow him to France and ends up arresting him. They offer him a chance of redeeming his self if he worked for the government in identifying fraudulent checks and so on. I know my crime isn’t as major as his. My admiration doesn’t come from the crime he committed but the out come of doing something he liked. I think that’s the ultimate nirvana is doing something you loved.

Homeless.

What is up with homeless people? I don’t mean to talk crap about the less fortunate but sometimes they can be serious douchebags. I do have a good heart. I also have the best intentions when dealing with serious interactions from such. I know it can be hard to live in this world when national debt is $16 trillion and even harder when you don’t have a job or enough income to supply the debt.

            I have come across this homeless dude who stopped me at the worse time possible. I was on the way to meet a girl at the local train stop close to home. I didn’t have any money since I wasn’t planning to be away from home for long.  He was an elderly African American and used a cane to get around. He kindly asks for a dollar. I replied, “I am sorry, sir, I don’t have anything on me at the moment”. I don’t know what has gotten into him, but he quickly responded with, “I bet if I was white, you would have a dollar”. I lost it. I turned it back around as the smartass me would’ve. “I bet if I was black, you probably wouldn’t have asked”. He looked at me with such a sour face and carried on. I also came across a guy, stating he was homeless while he had his daughter with him. He asked for seventy-five cents, so he could get on the next train to his moms. I, being a dad, knew how hard that could be, quickly offered him the seventy-five cents. Not even steps away, I hear him ask the next traveler for the same amount of change. I guess I grew into this distrust with the homeless. I once witness a homeless answer his cell phone in the mitts of catching change from a friendly fellow. I also over heard a homeless blaming the lack of change was due to school starting again. As if it was a problem to them.

            I did have my share of helping the homeless as well. My neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts had a guy that goes by the name of Smiley. He asked for change and I was having a good day but no cash, offered him lunch instead and as a homeless person should act on a free meal, he took it. I let him order whatever he wanted from McDonald’s as it was better than Dunkin Donuts. Smiley got a value meal and sat at a table and enjoyed it. He didn’t continue to ask for change, he didn’t over order. He order enough to suffice at the moment.  He was happy.

            I know that they had a hard life and don’t get me wrong, I respect that they are trying oppose being dumped on. But learn to love life and respect both those who can afford you and those who can’t, because you will never know if their roles will switch. Not everyone has a bad heart or should be effected by someone’s bad day.

Super Powers!

On the talk of Super Powers, what super power do you want the most?

After seeing the two main summer blockbusters of 2012, I want the power of advertisement. It may sound dumb, but think about it. Batman and Ironman both prove that money is the best super power, as shown in their respective movies.  To be stars of the show, you don’t need to be cops, monsters, have steroids, skills, or even be a God. You need just enough money to make you invincible from all that stuff. Now, what does that have to do with advertisement? Everything. Crapping blockbuster hits drown you in so much advertisement on every televisions, buses, trains, and even airplanes which helps them succeed by making sure you know their flick by the time you show up to the theatres so, you can choose their flick over flick B. So, if everyone came to see my flick over flick B, I would receive that money. Also, If McDonalds serve approximately 58 million a day, making at least one buck per a sale, they would have 58 million dollars. According to Forbes Fictional 15 article, Tony Stark’s net worth is only 9.3 billion dollars and Bruce Wayne’s Net worth is only at 6.9 billion, I should be able to catch up to them in no time. Now to come up with a DIY superpower…

What would you do?

I just finish multiple videos on Youtube.com, based on this television series, called 'What Would You Do?'. It is based on several different scenarios done in public places to see what would the public do about it. A lot of stories ended up positive because of “Do good things and good things will happen to you”, which is called Karma.

The first scenario I saw had a woman dressed in a business suit who falls on the street. This was based on a situation that happened at the hospital, where a lady collapses in a waiting room and hospital officials ignored her for 45 minutes, which ended up too late to save her. Well the businesswoman was helped in less than three seconds. They then try another actor, a homeless man. A lot of people passed him, but he ended up receiving help in three minutes. They gave him a beer can and the time went up to 45 minutes. It’s hard to believe that a few second phone call seems to be an inconvenience for some. I recall having a similar incident where a man passed out on our doorstep and I tried calling 911. They asked if he was breathing, I responded with I’m not sure, he was laying against my door and I had no way getting out. They asked if he was dangerous, I said, I didn’t know. They said okay and took my information and hung up. I looked out 45 minutes later and he was still there, so I called off of work just in case if they had questioning. I noticed an hour later that the man was gone.

Some of the other scenarios in the show was a dad taking his son to a liquor store to purchase drinks for his house party, which we all know is wrong, but apparently a lot of people couldn’t step up to it to stop them. It took a police officer from another city and a mother to stop him. I would’ve step in if the child kept saying that he didn’t want to be involve. At that point, the parent was forcing bad influences on the boy and that bothered me, knowing that there are parents out there in this world.

A mother was at a store buying groceries and didn’t have enough money to pay. A lot of people stepped in to help. A lot of us have been there and that sucks. If I have it and you didn’t, I would give it. That’s a big thing to me. It’s Karma. I have this habit of donating that dollar to whatever cause at the local Walgreens or food restaurant. A lot of times, they give you a cool nifty thing to write your name on so they can place on the walls of donators. I normally write my daughters name or my last name due to a strong belief in Karma.

 Father meeting his daughter’s new boyfriend of another race was the last scenario, I saw. Growing up in a completely different race community, it was hard finding the same race, so I dated out my race a lot. I felt more then acceptance in the relationships’ families. I can’t imagine not having a welcoming family to my dates. I even recall an elderly polish lady stopping an ex and I on a date. This ex was dark skin Mexican and telling us how cute we looked and how beautiful she was. I was blown away. I had a grandma who called out a misspelling on a black ladies’ nametag at a retail store. She thinks the reason was because that black people were uneducated.