Thursday, June 30, 2005

C.redit C.ard F.raud

Surprise! That's right. I blogged twice in a week! LOL

I was inspired to write this blog since it's on my mind. I have been a victim of c.redit c.ard f.raud. I'm the type of guy that wouldn't notice $2,000 missing out my account, or 20 extra charges on my bill. So you're probably wondering how I found out, right?

My Macy's card expired. This is a problem, because I get 90% of my clothing from there. Since they are changing to the Rich's name, maybe that's why I never received my new card. I don't know. So I called and asked for a new card, the guy told me I had a balance on the new card. That's not possible, if I never activated the new card. He said, the card was activated at my number on such-&-such date, and one purchase at some auto store for $25.

I'm thinking, maybe I did buy something at an auto store. I don't know what I did 2 weeks ago. Before I could ask more questions about the charge, I was speaking to the fraud department. They didn't have access to the fraudulent charge, just wanted my statement. I'm going to file the fraud report, but I'm going to really be kicking myself in the ass if I find out later that I bought an air filter for my car with the card that fell under by bed.


Fireworks

(another borrowed post idea)
I have a 4 day weekend! Don't have those too often. One would think I would've made great plans, but nope. I had a b'ness trip cancelled that was planned for this week, so now I will be listening to fireworks from my deck.

I had a flashback to when I purchased some firecracker things when I was in Cali. My roommate watched me act a fool in the driveway. Forgetting how extremely dry everything is in the summer time, I set my front yard on fire!!! Stomping the flames was not effective, it was spreading to quickly. In 20 seconds, it was approaching my neighbor's bushes & fence. As I continued my useless stomping action, my roommate approached and made good use of the water hose. Not much to the story, but it was my most memorable 4th of July


Memories


Speaking of memories, my boy sent me a DVD from 2 summer trips, back in 1999 and 2000. Wow, I was a fool, always drunk, always having fun, and I looked extremely young. But I keep thinking to myself, I wasn't young. It's the exact same me now, just with a lot more hair. And I don't drink as much. And I don't party as much. And I don't try to be a playboy anymore. And I haven't kicked it with my boys like that since.... um.... OK. I am getting older. I guess, as much as I deny it, I'm not the same as I was 5+ years ago. :-|


BET Awards Show


Did you guys watch the awards show? I enjoyed it. Favorite part: Stevie Wonder doing a choreographed dance at the end. First of all, Stevie is FAT!!!! Hit a stationary bike or something. Anyways, he broke it down. Started with the 2 step, and ended with brushing the dirt off his shoulders into his Cool G pose. Loved it.

Of course, my other favorite part was the lap dances Destiny's Child gave. Suggestion, next time pick men that are NOT married.

The most ghetto part of the show: Not a sinlge award winner was present if they weren't also performing (exception is Glady's Knight).

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Wonder Briefs? WTF?

I know men (& women) appreciate the cleavage enhancing (creating) effect of a wonderbra. But would women appreciate seeing a man wear wear this? I'd hate to see a co-worker wearing these at a meeting. I would publicly embarass him!


Ghetto Car Show


So as some of you may have already read, I attended a ghetto car show this weekend. I saw some eye catching vehicles, as well as rides that make you wonder why it's even there. Maybe they were short on cars fill in empty spaces. I captured a few pics that really caught my eye. I was impressed with the motorcycle that was painted the ones in Biker Boyz. Then there was Mr. Romantic Baller that had wine & glasses encased in glass in his trunk. I dont' know the purpose of all that, but it looked nice. I preferred the classy tricked out cars, like the Chrysler 300C with the suicide doors, two toned, nothing that was consider too excessive. "WOW" was the ride with the huge NOS tank installed in the trunk, and "RIDICULOUS" was the ride that was altered with one center seat in the front. You see that the gas peddal is on one side, and brake/clutch on the other. But gear shift stick is in the same original position, which means the driver is shifting between his legs under the steering wheel. Uh, yeah. What I wasn't expecting was seeing all the semi-naked women walking around. I guess they helped to bring attention to certain rides or were looking for some Suga-Daddies.


New Driver


Oh, I wish I had my camera with on Friday. I saw this big ole SUV driving just under the speed limit, with a huge cardboard sign taped to the back window that read, "New Driver". OK. We all appreciate the concerned parent warning everyone behind so that we know why someone slowing everyone else down during rush hour traffic. What I don't understand, is why this parent felt that it was appropriate to obscure the driver's visibility in the back window? Knowing SUVs already have a huge blind spot, why cover up the entire back window? He could have just as easily taped the sign to the lower part of the SUV back door and be just as effective. Sure enough, as I passed the vehicle, the Dad is clinching to the "Oh Shit Handle" as if he was scared for his life.


Move: Rize


This documentary was enjoyable. Not great, but cool for a matinee. The movie's message was clear, and effectively shown... especially with all the upbeat music and good lighting and camera angles to catch all the crazy dancing they were doing. But what really bothered me is seeing a 4 year old doing moves that a woman 5 times her age would have be drooling uncontrollably. I understand, they learn from watching others and B.E.T. But if the parent doesn't see anything appropriate, one of the other adult dancers should have put a stop to it. Yeah yeah, she was just dancing & having fun. This 4 y/o started doing some Cali version of the Harlem shake, follwed by her lifting up her shirt, holding it in her mouth, rubbing her bare stomach, then broke down into a full split. This was followed by a grinding motion that had NOTHING to do with dancing. A sad reminder of how this event could happen in Atlanta.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

W.A.S.P.

OK. It's been a week since I posted. I don't see how you guys do it! I hove no wife, no kids, and still can't find the time to blog as often as everyone else does. Being busy at work and watching the NBA playoffs is probably why. Just saying, I'm jealous. I have a lot of twistsed thoughts to express, just can't document them fast enough!

For example, have you ever had the crap scared out of you while handling your b'ness in the bathroom? My manlihood left me quickly as I let out a yell (I can't scream) when I saw this about 4 inches from me! ===>>>


Last Week


I survived my crazy presentation last week! Customer & management is pleased with how the presentation went. But I see now why folks have secretaries. I really need a promotion so I can have someone obligated to take care of the little things that I overlook, like sending a properly collated package to the print shop. My packages had 300 pages!!! Aside from a few packages missing a section or two, it all worked out. :-) 300 pages!!!

I walked on my lead, and he was asking me questions about skiinng. WTH? Found out, he is submitting my name for the company to consider nominating me for "Black Engineer of the Year" awards. Maybe I'll be considered for "Most Promising" or "Biggest Hustler". Anyways, I'm optimistic.

This put my corporate hustler plan back into action. I counted up all of the certificates I have collected, and bought frames for them at lunchtime. An hour later, my cubicle looked like a Walk of Fame! Image is everything, so a positive message shoud be sublimily transferred to every visitor. My bubble quickly busted when I found out a decision I made last week was elevated to my supervisor. After he spoke with me, he told the 'punks', my decision is the same as JezChill. I'm going to be sure to call them out tomorrow and tell them the next time they have a problem with what I say, come to me first. Don't they know who they are messing with? Don't sleep, they'll be working for me one day! LOL (That was an evil laugh)


Movies


EVERYONE in Atlanta has a hustle. Except me. Is it because I'm content with my Salary? Lazy? Unmotivated? Wait, maybe I do have hustle! I went to a casting for a paid movie extra role last week (Tyler Perry's Family Reunion)! OK. Getting $50-$75 doesn't count. This past Saturday, I auditioned for a speaking role!!! I didn't put much thought into it. Geckogirl was gone, and I was anxious to get out & do something.

So here I am, in a hotel lobby filled with wannaa-be actors. Wait a minute. I saw that guy in a movie before! OK, maybe I'm out of my league here. I received a sheet of paper after I registered, I had 4 lines. This can't be too hard. I just got through speaking before a room full of folks that my job depended on, so it should be easy to speak 4 lines in front of a camera, right? After waiting 2 HOURS!!! for my turn, I read my part opposite this guy who speaks 2 lines in this scene. I'm ready! i don't even need the paper. Director tells me I'm playing the role of a professional basketball player, camera lady tells us to stop stepping out the camera angle, and "ACTION!"
   [Quincy] Yo, can I get your jersey from up
there?
(pointing to my jersery that's immortalized
at the top of the gym)

[Sean] (That's me) Not that one, but I'll get
you one.
.
.
.
.

Eery silence! Did I fuck up already? I looked at my cheat sheet, then asked the director if someone was going to read the other 2 characters that are in the scene! I swear... black people. He apologized, and we went through it again.
   [Quincy] Yo, can I get your jersey from up
there?
(pointing to my jersery that's immortalized
at the top of the gym)

[Sean](That's me) Not that one, but I'll get
you one.

[Dean] I'll take you the hole & dunk on you!
(grabbing the ball out my hands)
[Sean] (Me again) Maybe so, but can you take
meto the library or bookstore and show me a
good book on investments?

((To everyone)
Can I talk to you guys for a second?
{ad lib}
[Sean] (My last line) Look, if you don't want
to hear what I can say, I can leave!

"CUT!"

So that was my grand attempt at getting my hustle on! I saw a couple other folks audtioning for Sean. They were SHORT! I'm 6'2". Maybe I'll get it by default.


War of the Roses


Remeber, I told you these damn Japanese Beetles were having orgies in my neighborhood? Well, the following day, I looked more closely at my garden and trees. Would you believe these bastards have ate up parts of one of my rose plants and the top of my Oak Tree? This is WAR!!! i bought some insecticide and sprayed everywhere! Here are pics of one of the leaves the beetles ate, and top of my baby Oak tree. I couldn't get my digi cam to focus on the leaf, but the blurry brown empty mass used to be a full green leaf. The white stuff is the insecticide.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

My House Is On FIRE!!!

Today started like any other, tried to get work early, staying busy preparing for my customer presentation tomorrow & Thursday. Then I get a call on my cell phone from some weird area code. Dude says, "This is your alarm company letting you know that your burglar alarm AND my fire alarm just went off." OH SHIT!!! Of course, I drop what I'm doing, and run to my car. I pass my entire management line as they returned from their lunch. I wonder what they are thinking, what they were talking about, I'll get to that later. I call both of my neighbors. One is a Mr. Mom, the other works days. No luck.

I jump in my car, and hit the gas as my mind started flooding the rest of my body with the fear of the worst. Forgetting that I have a tight sports suspension, I speed over the big company speed bumps. *Oooph* *Ahhhh* That hurt. Get on the main street, and I test out my SuperCharger. Mind you, you can't roll 3 blocks on this side of town w/o seeing a cop. One block....two blocks... three... there he is, right in front of me! Too make matters worse, not only do I now have to drive the speed limit, but my "Check Engine" light is on!

Now my car is about to blow up while I can only think about how one of the trailer park kids (neighboring subdivision) broke into my basement, stole who knows what, then tried to burn my house down! My castle!!! Up in flames with dreams. I get to my house, my neighbor is working in his yard (I'll get back to that too). No fire truck. I enter my house, turn my alarm off. It's hot as hell up in here!!! My car said it was 94 degrees outside, and I have my a/c on timer, so it's off during the day. No fire. No smoke. no busted windows or doors. What the hell? False alarm. My heart didn't get the message, cause it's still beating at 160 beats per min. Running upstairs, then downstairs, then down to the basement, & back up, sure didn't help. Thermostat says it's 87 in here. Fire alarm upstairs is flashing "red". Alarm says it's a basement window or door that was opened. OK. I don't know what's going on. The Alarm company didn't help any.

My neighbor said the fire truck left just as I arrived, I just missed them. Apparently, they came, knocked on the door & looked in my windows. Ummm, you can't see shit through my windows! Look at my house! ===> You can't tell if there's a fire upstairs. Nor from the windows in the front of my house. So if I left my iron on upstairs, or my clothes dryer caught fire, the firemen came & left w/o putting the fire out! Well, they must know that when they get a house fire alarm when no one is home, it's probably a false call. I'm glad they didn't knock down any doors.


Day stays bad


I return back to work 30 mins after I left. (10 min commute, 10 mins at my house). Now I the reason for my position is largely to ensure that tomorrow's presentation goes well. I go to the print shop to pick my my slide presentation, which is about 250 pages long! Instead of getting 25 stacks of 1 presentation package, I pick up 30 separate sections of the presentation, 25 copies each. AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!! Plus, they are stapled together. As I frantically try to rearrange the packages prorperly, I realize that I'm about to present a bootleg package to our customer on a $80 million project. Each package is held together by rubber bands! Shit! I rummage through the office supplies to find the LARGE binder clips. But the staples make the corner of the slides too large for the clip. Conveniently, the young kid that helps had to leave, so I was stuck trying to find a way not to embarass myself tomorrow by myself. So here I am, removing thick staples from 30 sections just to apply one binder clip. Not the way I wanted to end my day. I'm no good at manual labor, so I stopped after creating 10 packages. Those are for the customer. Anyone else gets a bootlegged pkg!


Diversity


OK, back to my mangement. why did I get a message from my manager only addressed to the few blacks in my group, inviting us to attend a breakfast with the Director of our program. This doesn't make any sense to me. Is he trying to fool folks to think that only the Black engineers have noteworthy info to tell? Nah. Is he trying to portray that he supports diversity, so here's all my proof? Does have some game he's playing and we're just pawns? There's probably 70 folks under him, 10 blacks, and he picks 4 to attend this meeting. Hmmm. Maybe I'm over reacting.


Keeping Up With the Jones' Part III


So after my heartrate came down to it's normal pace, I talked some more to my neighbor. Remember, I already told you that 2 doors down, dude built a retaining wall for his garden exactly like mine, so three adjacent houses have the same landscaping. Now my other neighbor is starting to build the exact same wall as mine! Where's the lack of creativity? Originality? I bit off of someone, so I guess it's just part of the neighbor game. His yard slopes much more than anyone else's yard, so his wall will be at least 5 feet tall! Mine is only 2.5 feet. I warned him, you just can't stack bricks 5 feet tall, the dirt will knock the wall down when it rains and dirt settles. He'll have to use cement or something to secure the bricks. I left for work, and noticed that he didn't make any progress since I was there. I guess he decided to quit for the time being after I warned him


Teaming up w/ the Jones' Part I


Before I left though, he acknowledged that he's been cutting part of my front yard. I was wondering why he was creeping onto my property (again). He says that when I cut my grass, it makes his yard look horrible, and vice versa. So he wants me to cut part of his yard so both of our yards will look nice. Hmmm, whatever.
Then he pointed out these strange bugs that were flying around the trees. He says they are Japanese Beetles. I've never heard of them. I saw them up close, and damn, these were some big ugly things, and they were mating like crazy! I've never seen such horny little insects! They were all over the trees. I never noticed. Here's my green thumb confession. I have a dead Oak tree in my backyard. Don't know what happened. It was alive last year. My neighbor suspects these beetles ate it to death! WTF? He put some type of powder on my trees, as well as his. He did that so the beetles on my trees won't infect his. I did some research, and he's right. I need to find me some insecticide ASAP. I also noticed one day part of my gutter fell off in the back of my house. I was about to go fix it one day, and it was already fixed! I think I will gladly cut his small section of lawn adjacent to mine.


Stevie on the Harmonica


Did you see Stevie Wonder play the Harmonica before tonights NBA game? AWESOME!!! Man's a musical genious.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Bad Service

OK, I finally found some time to post. What's been going on with me lately?

Well, I met up with Call2Arms along with another friend who also left Atlanta for Cali, only to return. The band at the Jazz Loft, 201 Courtland, was tight. They definitely jammin. We were wondering why no one served us any drinks. It was only... 10:30, on a Thursday night. Hmmm, maybe cause we were black! Nah... everyone else was black too. Maybe... because we were late? An hour later, it was obvious that they didn't want to serve drinks since the band would finish at any time. Guess the place closes down when the band finishes, I don't know. Seems to me, they would stay open & serve drinks. Then again.... you know how your people are! There's probably so much movement when the show is over, the waiters sometimes get stiffed with the checks. I don't know, but it annoyed me.

So we went to Cafe Intermezzo. Very cool chill spot. But why everytime I go there, I get the gay waiter? Why couldn't he talk like an ordinary man? (I know, I'm homophobic, deal with it!) "Heeeeeyyyyyeeee, whaaaaat would you liiiiiiike to draaaaannk" It was all downhill from there. I figure, if I don't make eye-contact, the dining experience will be pleasant. Umm, no. The service was.... dramatic. Then I get my favorite Belevedre Martini. It's missing 2 olives. Blow the whistle, flow the flag, this is a drink infraction! I request 2 olives. You would expect the olives to be served on a saucer, right? How would you like it if someone was holding the lemon you requested for your water? So the guy that I was avoiding eye contact with returns with the olives on the toothpick, in his hand! He's holding the only exposed part of the toothpick, saying "Here you go." Umm, what am I supposed to do with that? Grab the bare olives with my hand? There's no plate to set it on. And his hands are holding the only exposed part of the olive! He lost his generous tip right there.


Initiative


I can't blog because I'm in meetings and running around like crazy all day at work. I must be one of those fools who think that I will get paid more if I work harder. Anyways, I return from a meeting to see my team in a meeting with my supervisor. At first, I'm thinking, "Here we go again, they having a meeting without me. How convenient!" So I crash the meeting, and request a TIVO replay. I'm told my supervisor is looking for someone to lead a project. Mind you, there are 6 people on my team, and I'm responsible for 80% of the team's accomplishments. A co-worker didn't believe me, so I sent him our weekly activity report which typically showed that all, or almost all of any note-worthy accomplishments occurred on my projects. So you would think that one of these guys would step up, and take advantage of their chance to shine. I've been doing a whole lot of shining. So I ask, "Has anyone volunteered to take the project?" My lead: "No, they are just asking questions". I say, "OK, I'll take it" Just like that, more visibility for me, more travels & frequent flyer miles.... WAIT A MINUTE!!! On second thought, maybe I should have asked some questions!!! I may have grabbed the project from hell that's doomed for disaster!


Our lovely gov'ment


Our wonderful government announced that the NEWSWEEK has done irreparable harm by erroneously reporting that the U.S. descrated the Quran. The following week, out wonder government announced that there has been substantiated reports of U.S. personell "splasing" the Quran with urine.