Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

That's what you see when I send you a message from my Blackberry. "Sent from my Blackberry smartphone with Sprint". But there are now 2 Blackberry Curves put out by Sprint and Nextel which, of course, is owned by the same people. You would never guess how huge the differences are between exact same Blackberry Curve models.

My very first cell phone carrier was Sprint. That was over 20 years ago. I had Sprint for many years but once the Push-to-Talk system came out with Nextel, I switched to Nextel. I was very happy with Nextel. The first big difference I noticed was that my monthly bill now came in at the amount of the plan. No overages or extras. When I was with Sprint, I never received a monthly bill that wasn't chock full of extra minutes used, text charges, fees, etc, etc. I felt very abused by Sprint and very relieved to make the switch to Nextel.

It goes without saying that I was one disappointed son-of-a-bitch when Sprint bought Nextel. And my fears were right on. From the very first bill that I received from the "NEW Sprint/Nextel" I was again over charged. I was again constantly calling them to ask about the new fees and charges. A lot of the time they actually took the fees off of my bill but most of the time, they didn't.

Another big difference is that the Nextel Curve does not have color icons which sucks. It also doesn't support Sprint TV. These are a couple of deal breakers to me.

But I had to put up with it because I needed to have direct connect for work and Nextel was the only carrier with this service.

*UPDATE

I have now decided that having direct connect wasn't as important as having a phone that you like so I left Nextel and went strictly with Sprint. I now have the 4G Evo. An Android phone that is pretty cool. My favorite feature? Watching my home Television on my Evo of course. I love that feature. Of course the battery life on the EVO just plain sucks so I bought a 3500 mHa battery from eBay. That is twice the size of the OEM battery. It was kinda cheap so it only lasts a little longer then the original but I had to have it.

The 3 Champion White Boys

Click on the arrow and watch the white boys dance. Yeah!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Random Drug Testing should be Outlawed!

Let me give you a little history. I am not a drug user. Therefore I have no reason for being against mandatory drug testing except for the following reasons;

• It is a huge invasion of my personal privacy.
  
• It assumes that I am guilty until I am proven innocent.
• An entire career that someone has worked for can be ruined by just one bad test.
• Why should anyone give a shit if I smoked a joint in my own home 2 weeks ago? What I do in my own home and on my own time is no ones fucking business.
  

My Father was a Police Officer for over 40 years of his life. The last 38 years was spent as a Chief of Police. My Father was as hard core and as conservative as you would expect an old school, lifetime Copper to be. But one thing my Dad never did was randomly drug test his men. He didn't believe in it. His men meant more to him then subjecting them to this humiliating invasion of privacy.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't want to see airline pilots, truck drivers, or anyone else in jobs that can effect the safety of the general population coming to work high on drugs or alcohol. I completely understand that but the key phrase here is "while at work". If you think I am high or drunk at work, by all means, test me. If I am doing my job and doing it well, then leave me the hell alone. Is that really too much to ask?
If I am a good employee and do not show any signs of being high or drunk then let me do my job. Why would you want to jeopardize my job and family's well being for a stupid, non-relevant test that is not 100% accurate to begin with?

If I get into an accident at work then I should be tested. But don't test me for THC in my system that was there two weeks prior. Test me for alcohol or drugs that are currently in my system and strong enough to interfere with my motor skills.

Just take a look around the Internet. There are tons of websites and products dedicated to help people beat drug tests. Not only has drug testing created a giant industry for the pharmaceutical companies, it has also created a huge industry to counter act those tests. God Bless American ingenuity.

So here is my message to the employers and drug testing companies of the world, If you want to invade my privacy and humiliate me, at least do it for a good reason. You should only test for being currently under the influence of substances. You have no right to know what I do on my own time. if you think I am high or intoxicated, test my breath or test me to see what type of intoxicants I may be on. If I am not currently high or drunk but a drug test shows past usage, tough shit. That is my business and my business only! It has nothing to do with what is going on today.

I can only imagine the number of people that have lost there jobs, never got the job that they were schooled for or were wrongfully persecuted for something they did in the past because of drug tests. That is a damn shame.

As you may or may not be able to tell from this blog, my life has been altered because of unfair random drug tests. I only admit this because I believe that I am a good person with a lot to offer any employer who would be fortunate enough to have me as an employee.

I really believe that it is politicians that are out of touch with reality along with the pharmaceutical companies that are pushing for random drug testing. The revenue these tests produce are incredible. it's all about money and stupid politicians that don't know the real story or don't care. After all, pharmaceutical companies have a huge army of lobbyists that legally grease palms and shake hands to get things done. And the reason that most people are not tested for alcohol is because it is legal and the assholes that require you to take a drug test is an alcoholic and doesn't want the tables turned on him.

I hope and pray that some day the world or at least the good ole USA will come to it's senses and stop this un-winnable war on drugs and it's citizens. Then we can move tax dollars to where they belong, Education, Mental health services, Strengthening our infrastructure and ending poverty in America.

IPODS Suck (or maybe it's just Apple)

I have owned many MP3 players but I decide one day to get an IPOD. It is supposed to be the best MP3 player on the market. I figured that if it is that popular, there must be something to it.

WRONG!

IPOD's are the biggest pain-in-the-ass, piece of shit, piece of electronics that I have ever owned. Maybe it's because Apple is so fucking scared of what the recording industry may do if they actually created a device that was capable of (oh my God) being able to copy and delete files on the unit itself. Wow, that could really throw the music industry into a tail spin.

Can anyone tell me whay Apple has made it impossible (without 3rd party software) to manipulate the content of an Ipod? it is my content. I own it. Why can't I fuck with it if I want to?

Oh well, just go fuck yourselves, Apple. I'll keep on using my cheaper, easier to use, and more functional MP3 player. You can find my old Ipod on Craigslist. You can have it for a steal.

UPDATE* I currently have a friends Ipod Touch. He asked me to put music on it for him because you must have a lot of patience and some experience before attempting to add music to an Ipod and he didn't think he had what it takes to take on one of these monsters. It is unbelievably difficult to do this. Itunes has to be the worst piece of monopolized software ever created.

Check out this article from PCPitstop.com.

Adobe Acrobat is the worst piece of shit software.....

Adobe acrobat has to be the slowest, buggiest, most bloated piece of shit software ever created. Actually, any software that comes with the Adobe name will be the slowest, most memory demanding and the worst running software you have. Guaranteed.

When PDF files first came out, I thought they were really slick. Being able to actually download and fill out forms that looked like the real form. It appeared on screen great and printed even better.

But they couldn't leave well enough alone. Now this piece of garbage has gotten so out-of-hand that it constantly crashes computers, constantly interrupts your work to "update" and then actually still makes you "reboot" your computer to complete an install. That should tell you what a piece of coding crap it is.

So this is for you Adobe Acrobat. Go fuck yourself and leave us alone!


Here is an excellent link I found recently that does a great job of explaining how fucked up Adobe is.

Take the Guitar Solo Quiz! See if you know your guitar heroes.

I like to think that I am pretty knowledgeable when it comes to Rock and Roll and Blues Guitar. Now that does not mean that I play Guitar because I don't. Actually I haven't played the Guitar for many, MANY years.

But while Stumbling one night (on the computer) I came across this little test to see if I knew my Guitar Solo trivia. It was pretty cool. I scored a 93 out of 100 although I thought that I only got one answer wrong but oh well.

Click on the graphic below and take the test yourself. It's fun and free!

I was A Master!
I scored 93/100 on theClassic Guitar Solo Quiz
Can you identify classic rock songs by listening to their guitar solos?


Quiz by Ibanez Guitar Blog

A Letter to my Father

Dear Dad,

How in the world did you do it? You are absolutely amazing. People can plan out their lives and control a lot of the things around them but how in Gods name did you control and plan your own death? People die with regrets and with un-closed business and they leave loved ones without making amends but you made sure that all of your t's were crossed and your i's were dotted before you left this earth.

We all know that you didn't die from any long term medical problems because you were only 76 years young when you passed and in great health and still traveling around the world with Mom.You were still performing your charity works for the poor migrant workers of Indeo on a daily basis.

We all knew that you didn't drown as your Death Certificate stated. You loved the water and you were snorkeling in the ocean off of a Tahitian Island at the time of your death. What a way to go.

But we still think that you planned and orchestrated your own death. Of course you couldn't do this alone. You had to have some help so you went to your most trusted friend. The person you talked to every day. The person that you confided in and confessed to. The person you honored and adored every day of your life. Of course that person is Jesus Christ.

You can't change my mind about the way I feel about this, Dad. And here is why;

1. You died in the ocean. You always loved the ocean. You were an avid fisherman all of your life, you owned your own boats and even enlisted in the Navy on your 18th birthday.

2. You died away from home so that we couldn't see you immediately after you died. You thought it would upset us too much.

3. You died while snorkeling off of an island near Tahiti. I can take a poll of 1000 people and ask them how they would like to die and give them that option. I'll bet 950 out of the 1000 would choose to go your way.

4. Although you were very healthy, you called each one of your four children into your office just weeks before your death and told each of us what personal jewelry of yours you would like each of us to have after your death. Of course we all wondered why you chose this date in your young life to do this but now we know why.

5. You left your wife of 53 years very well off and well taken care of.

6. You made sure that you died without putting us through the pain of watching you die from cancer or some other medical malady or even worse, in a plane or car crash.

7. Everyone in the family knew that you wanted to be buried at sea but that it was against your Catholic faith which meant more to you than anything else in the world. To you, this was the next best thing. Enter the ocean and into Christ's arms.

8. You always said that the amount of friends and family that show up at a persons funeral is directly related to the weather conditions outside that day. Of course you died in the summer time because you didn't want to create any hardships for any of your friends or family.

9. Because of your position as Chief of Police and because you were a Police Officer for over 40 years, you attended, spoke at and led many funerals. You led many ceremony's for fallen officers, friends and relatives. You even managed to lead your own funeral by having your youngest son and a clone of yourself, speak at your funeral. He spoke as you would have spoken.

10. Because of your deep Catholic faith and your love for your fellow man, we believe that after working out this deal with the Lord, your just rewards would be to sit at the right hand of God and be with him for eternity. I know that you are watching and waiting for us and especially Mom to come home to Heaven so you can see the family that you loved and nourished and raised once again. And Pop, we can't wait to see you either.

I just don't think that any of us kids have the kind of juice that you have with the Big Guy upstairs to orchestrate the end of our lives like you did. Ok, it's possible that Mom does but the reason I don't think so is because if she had it her way, she probably would have gone with you instead of staying here and missing you so much. But then again, she does have her Kids, her Grand kids and her Great Grand kids to consider. Who really knows?

Pop, we miss you so much. Not a day goes by without all of us thinking of you. You were the most wonderful Father and the greatest role model any kids could have. Thanks for everything you did for us Dad.