What Day is it?

Hey there! Sorry for taking soooo very long to write anything; as though there's anyone really reading this thing. Anywhay I've not been getting very much sleep duh what else is new, but I'm talking less than 3hrs per night for the last couple of days. The effect is one of profound forgetfulness and a sense of limbo. I thought that I had figured out the deal with changing templates. I wanted to import a new one and haven't quite got it yet. This template is one of the ones from blogger. I bought some new sneakers from Mo's for $29.00 a steal!!! I should start a blog about cheap sneaks for dads who can't afford the good stuff anymore due to kids!;-) There Nike which is a stretch for me, no pun intended with my very wide feet I usually can't wear them but this pair seems to be accomodating my flippers so far. It comes on the heels of my having a new book to read called "The Winner Within" by former Lakers coach Pat Riley. It's good so far and is a quasi-self help book I guess; least that's how I sees it. Well it's dinnertime at the Ole'Ponderosa so I have to sign off. God bless and Goodnight!

Pat Riley's "The Winner Within"

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Question: Love vs Fear Which is the stronger motivator?

I'm reading the former B'ball coach of the LA Lakers Pat Riley. There's a lot of talk of "Leadership" and "Teamwork" in it. The book is called "THE WINNER WITHIN." It talks a lot about motivation and how when trying to build a winning team finding out what motivates people is essential. I began thinking about how people are motivated which lead me to ask myself "How are people motivated?" I found that Fear & Love are two of the strongest. I began thinking about what lengths people are driven when in "Love." It is a very powerful force. Then I began thinking about how "Fear" motivates people. I extrapolated that Love is a positive motivator while Fear is a negative one. Love is about going after something you want, something to be "Gained." Whereas Fear is about the opposite, what can be "Lost" or taken away. Which one is stronger? I think Fear is stronger. Which is older? I also believe that Fear is older and the more primal. Some may state that Love is more primal having been the drive to keeping the species alive through procreation. I would counter with the statement "Lust is not Love." I believe that love came much later and that "Lust" was the primal drive not "Love" that kept the species alive during the time of the dinosaurs. All the more to my point that the "Fear" of not mating was an even more motivating than the lust that drove them in the first place. So peruse the inner reaches of your mind and make it personal; apply the question to yourself and then answer for yourself "Which is a stronger motivator in your life? I'm going to study it out on a biblical level. God wants us to Love Him but also Fear Him. The bible states that "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom." So which one is to have the upper hand in our psyche if even one is to be more primary than the other. I believe that what motivates us tells everything about our character and ultimately our destiny. Whoa! That's a lot of heavy thinking! It must have been that Latte on the empty stomach ;-) Holla back atcha boy! Tell me your answer. Apply it to your day today. In situations that arise throughout the day, ask yourself afterward or before "Am I being motivated to make this decision by Fear or Love?

Black Slavery 2010

I finally got around to watching the movie "Precious." I find it no consequence that the week prior my family and I had been watching "Roots" by Alex Haley. The kids had wanted to know about slavery and we thought it a good idea to dust off Kunta Kinte so we did. It was amazing to see Roots again. I hadn't seen it since it was on TV over thirty years ago. I surly didn't remember all the topless women running all over Africa. Looking back at it there were so many cliche's and sexist attitudes even in the making of the movie; ah but I digress. I say all this to say that watching "Precious" reminded me that too many of us "Free Black People" negro, colored, Afro-American, African-American whatever you want to call yourself or answer to people are still slaves. We as a people are our own worst enemies. Back in the early seventies before "Roots" came out my best friend Chuck and I were talking about just this dilemma of the plight of the American Black and I commented that I believed that we would have to write off an entire generation of blacks and start all over again with the kindergartners. He expressed to me that my view was extremely harsh to which I replied; that generation would be lost anyway. I don't have an answer. I understand what circumstances brought us here but little or no effort is being made to get us out by the government or ourselves. I believe that Michael Jackson was right when he wrote "Man in the Mirror" for that is where the answer lies. It is time for black men to get married to one woman and stay with her raising his family with integrity and fidelity. Please go and watch the movie the movie "Precious" which I believe will make you a Republican (maybe) with respect to advocating the cessation of welfare which I believe is the single most crippling thing that has been done to us. It robs one of the initiative to work. It is the proverbial "free lunch." My conspiracy theory mentality which gives too much credit to the "White Supremacists" believes that "Welfare" is there way of hamstringing blacks by continuing to undermine the male leadership of the black family. That's enough for today. Peace!

Castronieves's Indy Car

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Indy Pace Car@GMA

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Me & Brick @ GMA

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Wooooo Faa!

Boy oh boy I'm fried! two days back to back working out. I almost barfed yesterday. It's the lack of sleep. Two days in a row of 2hrs sleep is not good. I can't recover, so when I push it hard the next day my body is in rebellion. Today there were baby black bears, gators & wild boars on the show with Jack Hannah. That's always a lot of fun. I also got to meet and take a picture with the kid who plays Brick on the ABC show called "The Middle." i think he's the funniest kid on tv. I'm trying to upload the photo so y'all can see it. He was so excited for me to want a picture with him. I told him that he stole the show every night out of earshot of the other two actors much to his delight. What a wonderful child. God bless and much more success to him.

What a weekend! Traveled to Harrisburg which is the capitol of PA! Great town of approximately 60,000 peeps. You can purchase homes for under 100k US currency! Wow!!!!! I'm so fried from lack of sleep. I know, stop whining!!! Anywho I'm hitting the hay now but wanted to toss this out there for all the sports enthusiasts. I think that the athletes of today are better physically but not in fundamentals and basics offensively and defensively. They're not interested in team anything. ESPN's highlight reel has ruined sports!!!! What do you think?????? I can't talk about health care right now! It's March Madness and WVA is on a roll!!!!!!!!Go eeeeeerrrrrs!

Breakfast in Bed

This is what I'm up against almost every day my nemesis, CHEESE! CHEESE BISCUTS, CHEESE IN THE EGGS.......

Emeril Lagasse Brakfast in Bed Contest

E mas

More of the Colossus

The Colossus of our front yard

Finally I've gotten a new battery charger and am now able to get the wonderful photos of our amazing snow fort from only a few weeks ago. It seems like years already. This fort is over 5 feet tall and took 4hours of non-stop work and two cups of hot mocha java to build. I am very proud to have been a member of the team of Ford workers who assembled this beauty which stands here now for your viewing pleasure.

Millennial Generation

I've been very tired as of late but then who isn't? Anyway I was listening to, I think an NPR station that was talking about the generation called the "Millennial." These are kids and bear with this half centurion for saying "kids," between the ages of 18-29. For all of you above 40 who think you're hip think again. You are a dinosaur to them. Many of you never even figured out how to program your VCRs! Again I digress. These are kids who've grown up knowing nothing but 9/11 War, Katrina, Real estate crash, massive unemployment never seen since 1929 a bailout of GM and others and the first official "African American" president.They are the most undereducated overweight unprepared yet most politically active generation ever. What do you think there concerns are? What would your concerns be if you were them? What are your concerns for them as your sons and daughters? Are they optimistic? What do you think there outlook for the future is? In the last election 1 in 5 votes came from them. In the last two elections more of them voted than people over 60! What does that say about us?

GB2.jpg

More GB
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King Leunitus from 300
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This a work of art by the set designer at GMA given to me in 2006 I believe. It depicts my favorite super hero alter ego of myself out and about in Times Square, as I was in the video below of this morning on "military island" in front of the studio.

I think I've finally got this video thing figured out. You may have to move the video forward a little; theres a bit of dead air prior to the start.

My friends down under my monitor

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Stayin' Alive ah ah ah ah...

I'm in here somewhere between the kickass NYC workouts followed by blue protein smoothies and "Root's" marathon viewing at home. Gotta get some E-time ttyl 2day. Peace.

Me on Times Square Billboard

Look how fantastic you look in plastic up in Times Square!

OLD NAVY MODELQUIN SEARCH

Hey Here's me up on the Reuters Bldg in Times Square. I entered the Old Navy "Modelquin" searh. Go to OldNavy.com and vote for me, Please. I could win $100K. Who knows it could be the begining of a new career???? It would at least make for a great story.

Pray Pray Pray

I was standing on the plaform waiting for the subway (anytrain to Manhattan) so I wouldn't be late for work due to the non-running #7 train when I looked at what someone had written on the wall on the farside of platform. I took a picture of it though it may not be clear what it says. It says Pray Pray Pray! So I did did did and 40 seconds later the train pulled into the station. Many would chalk this up to coincidence or serendipity; whereas I see it as GOD encouraging me to one pray first & often, two trust that wahtever is happening He's got my back & three no matter what don't give up. With what's going on in my life right about now that's a best start to the worst day of the week I've ever had! AMEN
PS. I'm very sorry but I couldn't get the picture turned correctly please know that it should be viewed with a 90degree turn stripes on the bottom. Click on it and the words are written next to the center beam just below the window.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Well Sunday is for all intent and purpose done for me seeing how early I've got to get up.  I got a lot of stuff done cleaning up my office!  I can actually see the floor!  You laugh it's really an accomplishment.  This room is the place where for the last 12 years since we moved from Queens all the stuff that we couldn't' t find a place for wound up.  Up until two years ago we still had boxes that hadn't been opened from the original move.  It's a sickness of sorts like that new cable show "Hoarders."  I'm not sure what the Pych profile is on people who are like this, NOT me.  Any who I'm taking all the books and chachkies off the shelves and rearranging their order, filing them by subject matter.  I'm a little anal about those sorts of things.  I feel great that I got some daddy & me time with my middle girl and am getting some with the littlest one right now.  We're off to Western Beef to get some whole wheat pita bread to go along with the Trinnie Roti my wife made.  Seee yall later.
PS cablevision has made it free "On Demand" movie night since ABC took themselves off the air.  I can't stay up and watch the Oscars anywho so Yay!

More Coffee Please!

Good Morning All,                                                                                                                                     I've put a question up on the "help" thingee about how to expand the margins of the blogpage in addition to "how to"create my own superspecialoneofakindonly personintheuniverse page.                                                                                                                       I'm still battling with the paranoia that someone would use whatever personal info I may post against me.  How do you other bloggers deal with that?  How did you get to being OK with it? Through what process or logic did you arrive, if you did at the conclusion of putting yourself "out there" for all eternity?
                                                                                                                                      Would someone please respond and let me know that I'm not just spittin' in the wind.  thx                                                                                                                            

O.K. I held the pose. Yes, you're a wonderful photographer; will you please throw the stupid chicken now?!!!

early morning Hercules.

¿why do U keep bothering me.

Los Pollo Salvaje

chicken in repose

Too Busy to Blog

Sorry ya'll for being too busy to blog; like there's a lot of people just waiting to hear what going on in my life. Any how I'm still deciding just how personal I want this to be and how to arrange the blogs layout. I've been surfing the blogosphere to see what others are doing and I'm quite blown away as to the immense amount of content peeps are able to stuff into one page. My goal is to have a gadget that would allow you to watch either podcats sorry I meant podcasts though watching podcats could be interesting; who knows. Any way I want to have my very own talk show along the lines of charlie rose. I want to interview a wide range of people to help other people like myself see that with different circumstances we are all truly more alike than different; some just have nicer toys. O.K. I'm very tired now and still haven't gotten to practice any dancing wit mah wife. Oh well boogie on Reggae woman... tomorrow's another day.

Rant of the Day

Peanut Butter containers! When is Jiffy or any other Peanut butter manufacturer going to create a container that when its down to the last third it does not cause for me to be frustrated trying to extract the "product!" Half the time if I can get any out I end up with some of it on my hand. I don't realize I have some on my hand until I've transferred it somewhere on my clothing!
I had thought maybe a collapsible accordion style container where the accordion portion is only the top third which impedes getting to the bottom third because of the depth of said container. The collapsible portion would decrease the length/depth of the container enough for you to comfortably get to the bottom. Then I thought that all they had to do would be to make the containers wider! Duh! They could maintain the volume and alleviate the getting gak on your hands because the depth would again be decreased & the opening would be wider! Duh! Or, here come the real genius put another cap on the other end so that when you get to the bottom or near you just turn the container over!!!! Huh??? No I haven't figured out which would be more cost effective and I'm not sure how much it would be to retool for a different size container but there would be the immediate revenue increase since no one else would have it. So increased sales would offset a portion of the retool. They'd only need one extra machine inserted into the assembly line; a flipper where the container is flipped and another cap is affixed to the other end. No that's not right, they would need two more machines; I forgot about the one that puts the threads on the end of the container since were going to need both ends threaded. No three they'd need another one to affix the added top to the extra threaded end. Oh well! Right about now you're probably thinking that I either drink too much coffee, have too much time on my hands or am truly disturbed. Well I'll admit that I drink too much coffee but this is one of those pet peeves that I've done polls on and I found that everyone is annoyed about it but never enough to take the time to complain to anyone who could effect change. Now I'm not without compassion I understand that it has to be cost effective but I believe that people would flock to the company that corrected the problem. To those of you who think that the accordion style wouldn't be able to be stacked I figure that the pressure of the product in the sealed container would help maintain container integrity. See not so stupid after all;-) The conspiracy theory side of me wants to believe that it is a case of "Planned Obsolescence" where they know that you can't get the bottom portion out and therefore need to go back out and purchase more of their "Product." That would truly be un American and totally evil if true; but then again they never found any damage from where the wings should have been on the Pentagon either! Coincidence, I think not!

Please help Tim McGraw raise money for our troops over seas! Click on this link to find out how! http://www.outback.com/companyinfo/thanksforgiving.aspx

Tim McGraw getting ready to rock Good Morning America.

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Cartoon of my alter ego/favorite super hero

Lot of Cooking Yesterday

http://www.dishwithdiane.com/Diane Henderiks was on the aftershow ABC Health with some "One Pot" meals that were very nutritional, tasty and best of all easy to make. Check her out at the site above.

Also in attendance on GMA proper was Rocco DiSprito with his newest cookbook called "Now Eat This." It is his attempt to transforms America's favorite comfort foods into healthy dishes with drastically reduced caloric intake. He accomplishes this in two ways, one way is by changing the cooking techniques themselves and the second is by substituting ingredients that are low in calories yet mimic the original texture and flavor of the original. I tasted the brownies that are made with black beans and they were great. Not as cloyingly sweet as true sugar junkies like but enough to be tasty.

Whats left of a once glorious snow fort.

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Still Working Out The Kinks

Did a lot this weekend. Sleep which is my constant quest! Then with the dancing lessons and building an "Snow Fort" on the front lawn with the kids which took a solid four hours of WORK! It all started with a timely nap followed by a Protein/Nescafe' shake. It began with me marshaling the troops and barking out orders to stop throwing snowballs an start making the foundation. Once it was about two feet high and 18 inches wide I began cutting out bricks from the pristine front lawn snow. At one point the dog got loose and was running amok in the streets and front yard. Chaos reigned for awhile but order was restore so construction could continue. Hot chocolate was provided by mom to keep the workers hopped up an production levels high. It worked. I have photos that I will post but I right now I can't find the charger for the camera and the battery is dead. Thank God we got a bunch of pictures prior to the battery death to have a record of the Snow Fort because the next morning with the rise in temperatures; like Jericho the walls came a tumbling down! "Tlamo" the Inuit word for snow that falls in big wet flakes. That's the perfect snow for making bricks for igloos. I realized after a few hours that if I slightly beveled the top of the bricks towards the inside that it would create a bend in the circular wall which if persisted would deliver the domed igloo. We only got up to about 5 1/2 feet before it got dark and it became a "Crazed Daddy" thing to continue. You can tell you've gone too far when the kids have lost interest and you look around and you're the only one out there. So we/I stopped. People were stopping there cars and taking pictures which was pretty cool. Now I've got you all hyped up for the pictures eh? Well you'll have to tune in again after I find/purchase a new charger. Needless to say when the caffeine and sugar wore off the muscle seizure began. Cue the laughter....