2/4/2012 The News Media

The news media sometimes describes politicians as "flip floppers" when they change their minds. They are also described as being "out of touch with the common person". I wondered, how would the media describe me if they followed me around all the time......

Well, for one thing, If I had 25 people following me around with camera's and no matter what I did they would still be there, I would blow a gasket and I would tell them all to "go out in the street and play with the trucks!"

After being that cranky, I would be described as an ass for my outburst. Video's of me saying "Go out in the street and play with the trucks" would be played every half hour on the 24 hour TV news.

I would also be described as a flip flopper because I reserve the right to change my mind.  As far as abortion is concerned, I once felt it was WRONG. The discussion stopped right there for me at that time. Now I feel about it this way. It isn't for me. I would not do it or ask someone who was carrying my child to do it.  I can't live for everyone else, I can't push my moral code on the rest of the world.  I wouldn't advocate abortion but I wouldn't stop anyone else from doing it for their own reasons.

The Bible says in Romans 13:1-7 : "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor."

Abortion has been legal since 1973. It is the law of the land and has been the law of the land for 39 years. I admit there are reasons to disobey the law of the land but this isn't one of them.

The Bible says in 2 Peter 1:5-7 "For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love."

Self Control is a something we should all have. Killing someone who allows someone who desires a legal operation isn't self control.  (I'm not going to debate the legal thoughts on when someone is alive or not. That is a form of hair splitting I have no answer for. As I have said, I wouldn't turn to Abortion but I wouldn't stop someone else from exercising their legal right).
If I was a politician, I'm pro life as far as my decisions for myself and I'm pro choice as far as the right to have a legal procedure.

Bearing in mind the above statements, one side would describe me as a baby killer (pro choice) and the other side would describe me as a pro life supporter and my thoughts are just not that cut and dried on the subject. To have my thoughts turned into a sound bite that only broadcast a second or two of my statements would make me SOOOOO mad that I would encourage the 25 reporters to "go play on a railroad track" and I would make the 24 hour news cycle yet again! ACK!

I will be the first one to admit, Mitt Romney has NO idea how I live or how I make ends meet on a weekly basis. This week Romney has been blasted for saying to CNN he is "not concerned about the very poor". Just seeing that statement will have you believe that Romney is a real heartless bastard. To quote the WHOLE statement the meaning changes greatly.

"I'm in this race because I care about Americans. I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I'll fix it," Romney told CNN Wednesday morning. "I'm not concerned about the very rich, they're doing just fine. I'm concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90 percent, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling."

That is totally different than just saying he is "not concerned about the very poor".   He is concerned and the media is doing a great disservice to this man because they don't have the integrity to post the whole quote and let people decide for themselves. I really hate media spin...quote the person in context and let the chips fall where they may.

I also have problems with throwing around a politicians past life. We have all done things in our life that we don't want on the news.  Have respect for a person's life.  Stick to the describing poor decisions that politician made while in office or in business and leave his "ex-wife/girlfriend/one night stand" out of the discussions. I really don't care about that. He can be the biggest S.O.B. walking the face of the earth, on a personal level, but be the greatest leader of our time.... JFK had more than one affair while in office but he was a good president and had he lived there most likely wouldn't have been a Vietnam war. The week before he died he was bringing a small number of  troops home from Southeast Asia.

By the spring of 1963, Kennedy had reversed course completely 

and agreed with Mansfield:

"The President told Mansfield that he had been having serious 

second thoughts about Mansfield's argument and that he now 

agreed with the Senator's thinking on the need for a complete 

military withdrawal from Vietnam."

 We found out about none of  his infidelity while JFK was alive because the News Media operated under a respect for a person's personal life that we have lost in our day.  I so wish it would come back. 

All of this boils down to this:
I'm GLAD I'm not in the public eye!

Ok, you can now ACK among yourselves

J.

The Daily ACK 2/2/2012 Random stuff.

I posted a photo on Facebook of two older twins. One is trying operating a vacuum cleaner the other one is around a corner with the power plug in his hand.  If life in the future is like that, I don't want to stop living. 

I was never one to pull a lot of jokes on others. I've been on the receiving end of that kind of thing WAY too many time so I can relate to the person the joke is directed toward. (I saw a good friend of mine almost drowned because of a "going away" joke gone wrong)

HOWEVER, there was this ONE time......

I have written that I was once stationed in Alaska at Eielson AFB from Dec 1984 to June 1987.  I worked in the AGE (Aerospace Ground Equipment) shop.  Some bases in some places can have civilians as workers. During the winter in Alaska we had a crew full of the same civilians that came to work for the Air Force in the winter and then worked for the Forestry service the other 6 months of the year, however, we had one civilian who was a full time worker.  The shop once had more than one full time civilian slot and as people left those slots the slots "went away" and were never filled again.  

The one remaining civilian in the AGE shop was one Phillip J. Stonerock (Honest to gosh, that was his real name). We all called him Stoney. He was an odd sort of guy. If he got to the shop first he always put the shop radio on the local Top 40 radio station. If someone else got to the shop radio first, they would put it on the college hard rock station from College, AK and the University of Fairbanks. Stoney would wear his hearing protection all day long to keep from listening to hard rock.

Stoney had a bad habit that didn't endure him to other in the shop. He liked to scratch himself "right there" and in front of ANYONE. Women, men, the Branch chief, the squadron commander..... in an absentminded sort of way.  Did I happen to mention he was odd?

Being on a base at the end of the supply chain could be a pain in the butt most days. We took any parts we felt were usable and put them in a locker with a combination lock on it. We were not supposed "hoard" parts like that but some days it kept us working when shop supplies ran low.  It was a necessary breaking of the rules that most higher ranking people turned a blind eye to, as long as we kept working was what mattered.

The combination lock on that locker was of a type that you could change the combination by  putting the hasp to the left of the lock body, push it into the lock body and turn the rotating numbers to the new combination and then pull the hasp back up and lock the lock...and the combination would be changed. Simple enough.

One morning I got to work early and was working on an H1 ground heater right in front of the used parts locker. Stoney wasn't around. I seem to remember the combination was "6767". I opened the lock and changed the combination to "6766" and went back to work on my broke heater.  Stoney came over to the locker to look for a few parts he needed and he rolled in the combination "6767" and when the lock didn't pop open it was the eighth wonder of the free world to Stoney.  He must of tried that combination 15 times. On the table beside the locker was a ball peen hammer and I honestly thought he was going to beat that lock with that hammer, but he didn't.  When he finally gave up, he walked away mumbling something about going to get the branch chief.....

Once he walked through the double doors toward the administrative office, I walked over to the lock, opened it, changed the combination back to "6767" and locked the lock back.  I went back to working on my heater.

It wasn't 3 minutes that Stoney and the SMSgt who was branch chief of the shop were standing at the locker. Stoney went on to explain that he couldn't open the lock on the parts locker. Over to the locker he went, he rolled the combination into the lock and WHAM...the lock fell open....the look of shock on his face was worth a thousand laughs...but I didn't laugh...I would have given myself away.   As I remember it, the Branch Chief walked off without saying much to any of us.

Stoney was a weird dude. He had one parking spot that he liked to park in because he was a volunteer fire fighter. It was just a parking spot. It wasn't reserved to him or anything. (I do remember he tried to get it reserved to him and the Branch Chief told him "NO"). He liked to back into that parking spot, just in case he got a call on his radio about a fire. The parking spot was in line with the sidewalk and front door of the building.  One morning he pulled in to back into this spot and I was right behind him and right in that spot I went.... Needless to say he wasn't too excited with me for the rest of the day!  Oh well....it WASN'T his spot but he wished it was! 

Ah! to be young and foolish again but now I'm old and foolish......You never can tell what might happen when no one is looking!

J.

The Daily ACK! 1/14/2012 Addiction

This could be very adult: You have been warned! 
ACK! I have said before that I grew up around addiction. My Dad's addiction to alcohol ruled my life at a young age. The reason I don't drink more than I do has a great deal to do with the things that aren't shown in ads for alcohol or cigarettes. The negative side of both of those products and the effects they have fill books.

I have a different problem...it isn't anything illegal and it isn't sniffing bicycle seats when people aren't looking. My one truly bad habit is:

COKE.

USDA, Atlanta Georgia made Cola Beverage. Pepsi will do in a rush and I'll even drink third party knock off brands of what ever cola I can lay my hands on. 

For as bad as my problem is, it isn't terrible. There is no such thing as people bitching about "2nd hand coke" and the hospitals aren't filled with folks who have C.O.P.D. from drinking a cola beverage...(I would say the caffeine might push a person's blood  pressure up a bit or two).  I've never sold nude photos of myself to support my habit or performed wild public sex acts to be able to afford my addiction.  There are no half way houses of former cola addicts or meetings where you stand up and say "My name is Johnny and I'm a beverage addict" I can walk proudly into the store with my head held high and buy my addiction of choice without small kids looking at me with horror in their eyes while asking a parent "What is wrong with THAT man Daddy?" *twitch*...."Nothing son, just a slight coke problem"

Once, while in the military, at a crowded but quiet Post sports bar, I exclaimed loudly "You know the worst part of sniffing coke?" You could have heard a pin drop.... and then I said the answer "The Bubbles!" You could almost hear the whole place take a deep sigh...it was rather funny.

It is a funny sort of problem but I think part of it comes from watching my dad drink alcohol as a kid. I watched him drink beer out of a can more often than I can remember. I never buy a 2 liter bottle of cola, it is almost always 12 ounce cans of cola. (We did get a pizza on special from Little Ceaser's that included a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi a few weeks ago )...for some reason, to me, the CAN is important.

Caffeine-free drinks or coffee are for the birds. It just isn't the same. The taste is totally off. I will admit to having problems getting my fat ass moving some mornings..why not drink something that will help put a BOOT in my fat ass to make it move better!  All a noble and worthwhile cause but....my overall health is SO much better without the weight of Caffeinated cola beverage hanging around my neck...*sigh*

I remember watching my poor Dad give up smoking, salt, and caffeine (in that order) at age 49 and I told him "Damn, you can't even have a bad habit anymore."  I am at that point in my life. For as much as I wanted to follow in my Dad's footsteps....THIS is a little closer than I wanted to be to my Dad's footsteps. One big difference between me and my Dad is that my chance of getting C.O.P.D. is a great deal less than his was at age 49. Oh well...it isn't a perfect dream, but it is my dream and so it has turned out.

I've gone off Coke two other times in my life and the reach of Caffeine has called me back louder each time. I have to get this off my back, but there is ONE problem. I LOVE the stuff.  Yes sir, you read that right. I LOVE the stuff....the problem is, it doesn't love me back. As it is with so many things in life, the one you love is bad for you. Ah wrenched mistress of the beverage, will you EVER release your grip on me?

Where do I go from here? I don't know and I'm having problems with all the problems in my life right now. My waist line has a mind of its own and putting off ANY habit is just so much harder right now. I'm not sure WHY.  The things I once gave up with ease just 10 years ago are giving me problems now.  I'm not fucking happy about this at all. I'm not happy with myself and the LACK of my ability to be able to walk away from a legal drink that has an effect on my health. I'm not fucking happy about it at all. I truly don't feel like suffering the headaches and stuffed up head that caffeine withdrawal will bring me.  Well SELF, sounds like a Mexican Standoff to me, just without all the Mexican's...

I try very hard to stay positive and to look on the bright side of life and the Norwegian Blue....but I'm in a bit of a spot....I'm tired of worrying about going to the Dr's office and worrying about my blood pressure or my glucose level or my weight or my balding head or my flat feet or my fat ass....blah, blah, blah, blah, Fucking BLAH!

I kind of feel about myself like Clark Griswold does about his boss in Christmas Vacation....:

.....I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?

If that quote were written today, it would most likely have "meth-head" in there too, but you get the idea.

Something has GOT to change and its the man in the mirror's job to change it.
All this work and only me to do it.  well....I might get Randi's help, you never can tell.

J.

The Daily ACK 1/8/2012 This FROST me a good bit!

A few days ago I started getting odd email's from people I didn't know telling me they were R.S.V.P. for a Luncheon on 9 Jan 2012. ....this isn't the first time this has happened. I seem to get mail that should go to someone else named Massengill. Our email addresses differ by only one letter. This has been going on for at least 5 years if not longer. One night, a few years ago, I decided to see if I could find out about this person and I found out who she is married to, what college she graduated from and what year....and other important information without even trying hard. All it took was Google.com, a name and a town name.....but I digress!

When I got these email's, I wrote the sender back and informed them of the correct address for their R.S.V.P.  
At such point that I started getting a good bunch of said R.S.V.P. email's, I searched for the organization on the Internet and found the email address of the director of the organization. I wrote the organization's director:

I have been informed that my email address has been given out as (someone else named Massengill)'s email address for the 9 Jan 2012 Luncheon.
I am not (someone else named Massengill) and her email address is XXXXXXXXXXXX@XXXXXXXX (please note there is only one "L" at the end of her name)
Please make sure you announce the corrected address  on your web page or by phone. It would be a shame for people to miss your luncheon because of having the wrong email address to RSVP to.

Thank you
Johnny Massengill

His answer was as follows:

Mr. Massengill,
We are SOOOOO sorry. This was a printing error. Please, please forward these to (someone else named massengill at the correct address) or (someone else's email)
We really do apologize for the error. We were wondering why we had not gotten responses from several folks. It is important to us that we get a good headcount for our event.

Signed by the director of this organization......

My answer back to him was as follows:

I'm an innocent person in all of this and this isn't the first time I've had this problem. I get a great deal of (some other person named )Massengill's email.

(for the record, I've gotten her country club bill, her church news letter, The newsletter of the lawn and garden company she uses, email's from the public library, email's from many of her friends...one of which I had to write 3 different times to say that I WAS NOT her friend...and I STILL get email from this person! This latest bunch of email about this luncheon has generated 46 email's !!! It is almost as if this woman doesn't know her own email address! I know that ANYTIME I receive email concerning a certain geographic area, it isn't for me. I don't have family or friends in that area and I've never even been there!)

For as much as I understand your activities, It is not my job to ensure the email for this luncheon arrives at the correct place or is forwarded to the correct person. I have ask that you put the corrected information on your website for all to see.
I don't monitor my email daily and it is your organization's problem to ensure that the correct information is given in the future.
For as sorry as you might be about this problem, think of how you would feel if a total stranger ask you to be responsible to ensure information was passed on at the cost of your time and effort???? This isn't my problem, it is the problem of your organization!
I'm sure  you have a wonderful group that does a great deal of good in your community but I don't live there. I only have so much time and effort for the pursuits of my own life and in my own community.

and a BIG ACK! to all of this! I'm totally shocked that a person that i don't know would even CONSIDER to ask me to forward a bunch of  email to the correct person! GAH! ACK! and GAH! again!

*stepping off my soap box*
J.

The Daily ACK 12/26/2011 Febreze Experiment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlw-ypNat7Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=s1bOm4KfLlU 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrSsKtVjt8&feature=related

ACK! Febreze has a bunch of  TV ads that show blindfolded people going to a nasty smelly place that has been sprayed by Febreze. The people in the blindfold talk about how good it smells or the smells they are smelling. They take their blindfolds off and are surprised by how nasty the area really is because they couldn't smell the true smells because Febreze is SOOOO good!   I CALL BULL$#!+

I was born on a day but I wasn't born YESTERDAY! Forgive my strong language but I just don't believe Febreze is that good of a product. I don't believe those ads at all true. Even Randi, who is quiet as a mouse, doesn't believe those ads are true.

If I took my blindfold off and saw such a nasty place, I would gag!  Bad smells bother me to no end. Walking into a dirty bathroom just turns my gut over. ACK!

Speaking of truth in advertising....I'm also opposed to the use of blue fluid in diaper ads. Why not yellow or brown fluid? I didn't say it would be any less gross, but it would be more truthful. If you found blue fluid in your child's diaper you would flip! I'm also not crazy about ads for female needs. Not that there is anything wrong with having an ad for such needs but the whole "Have a happy period" is just going a little too far.

I would guess being named after a female hygiene product has warped me a good bit...*twitch*

Ok, I'm off my soapbox!
Happy Day after Christmas! 

J.

The Daily ACK 12/14/2011 The other woman in my life

Sophie at the Dr. Aug, 2009

Sophie, we got her 22 Oct, 2008

I'm being good, HONEST!

ACK! 22 October, 2008, My life changed. I had another woman come into my life. Our relationship started kind of rocky but we made it work. 

We got Sophie due to a phone call I got at work in October 2008 from my friend Karen James. She told me about a female doxie that a friend of hers wanted to give away or the dog would go to the Sumter A.S.P.C.A. I called Randi and we decided to take a look and see what we thought. We had thought about another Doxie but we wanted a black and tan male Doxie. At the time I didn't get off from work until 5:30pm and then something had happened to keep me there even later.  I got to a point that I could leave my work and I met Randi at a very nice house near downtown Sumter. I walked into the house and Sophie's owner was holding her and we all talked about the dogs and why she was wanting to give away Sophie. Seems Sophie hadn't gotten the hang of potty training.  While we were talking, Sophie started squirming in her owner's arms and she ask Randi "What do you think this dog wants?" and Randi said "I think she needs to go outside"....so outside we all went, Randi, myself and Sophie's owner. Upon getting down, Sophie shot outside and was chasing squirrels from tree to tree. We never saw her "do" anything while outside, if you know what I mean.....

When we got back in the house, I got Sophie up in my arms for the first time. It was love at first paw, for me at least. Sophie wasn't real strong on anyone holding her and she still is kind of a "touch me not" sometimes. The deed was done and we decided to bring Sophie to the nut house with the rest of us cracked nuts!

The first few days at the nut house were different for Sophie. She met Dylan and Dylan went a little doggie NUTS over her....it was very much like "HEY!!! that's a girl! WHOO HOO!"  Poor Dylan tried every way in the world to mount Sophie....men are SUCH pigs sometimes. Sophie was a nervous girl. You could look at her wrong and WHAM..she would tinkle on the floor. It took about a month for her to get the message about going outside. We always take our dogs out on a leash and the first few times outside were interesting. Sophie wanted to chase squirrels and we had leash in our hand to redirect her "efforts".

Sophie's arrival caused a change with Dylan too. Sophie slept in a crate and was used to sleeping in a crate. Dylan had always slept with us. Seven years of sleeping on the bed. It had come to the point that Dylan and I had begun to fight for who took up most of the bed! If one dog could sleep in the crate, Dylan could sleep in the crate! His first few nights in the crate were unhappy for Dylan but he now goes to bed without a problem.

Sophie is a lot of things. Sassy, hard headed, to name a few. She is driven by food. after a second round of back trouble in Dec 2010, we put our dogs on the "Doggie Diet" A half a cup of food in the morning and another half cup at 5:00pm.  The second diet day, at 5:30am, Sophie ate her half cup of food and then she pushed her bowl toward me with her noise so as to say "HEY, how about some FOOD in this bowl!" She still isn't crazy about the whole diet thing.

When I walk in at night, there Sophie stands at the door....then to her doggie bed to get a tummy rub from dad! (I make her go to her doggie bed for a tummy rub because she sometimes gets excited and she will tinkle just a tiny bit...I would rather wash a dog bed than make the carpet nasty)

She is good to the core and I love the stuffing out of her. We wouldn't trade her for the world!

J.

The Daily ACK 12/13/2011 Rhythm

ACK! My life is in a bit of a twist right now. For one, I'm up at midnight writing this, which means I'm not sleeping when I should be....

My lovely wife, Randi, is in Minnesota with her sister, Robbie. Seems Robbie's husband, Eddie, fell on the front walk of their house and broke his right arm and gave himself a good whack to the head. The day I looked at Randi and told her to go help her sister, Eddie wasn't doing so good.  He had been operated on for a perforated bowl. The Doctors said he would be lucky to make it to 7:00am the next morning.. Talk about ACK!  Seems Eddie did make it to the next day and seems to be turning toward getting well.  All of this is good news. Randi still went to Minnesota with my blessing.

The day I dropped Randi off at the airport, I drove to a remote site to install some network equipment. When I got to the site and connected everything, I found a fiber connection between two buildings didn't work. Repairing fiber is a special thing that I can't do. I had to tell the people I was working for that I couldn't do what I came to do because of a broken piece of fiber....ACK! I had to get back in the car and go back to the main office. At the office we changed out our firewalls. The guys that stayed at work till the firewalls were replaced were at it until 3:00am! I left at 10:30pm because I had two dogs, Dylan and Sophie, at home with no one there to let them out!

I fell in bed about 11:00pm but they called me from work until about 2:30am. My Saturday was SHOT! It took until 1:00pm before I got moving good. Then Sunday morning, I realized that I forgot my Saturday night meds....Randi being gone threw off the rhythm of my day. I don't blame my goof on my wife being gone BUT you must realize her being gone is like losing my right arm.  You sometimes don't realize how your life and her life fits together in a million small ways until they are missing.

Here lately I've told Randi in every way I know how that she means the world to me.  That wonderful woman feels just right in my hands, close to me.  I like her more than just a little bit. Is our marriage perfect? No...but it is very good most days.  I think I finally calmed down and got it in my thick skull that she isn't going anyplace.

We are a bunch of "yours, mine and ours" we each bring something different to this relationship but it all melts together into a team. I'm pretty happy with US, even with her being so far away.

Sunday, the day she comes back home, can't come fast enough. I miss her.

J.