Goodwin 1st MRB

I think it depends on what you want out of life, but I promise there's always other choices! Money is just paper - it's a necessary evil, but ultimately just paper. I'm paying off lawyers, psychological evaluations, court fees, etc. for my divorce (already over $18k + paid) - but I'm working a relatively low paying job. I'm a web developer - and it took me a long time to finally get into this role because computer science was only my minor in school (Psych major). But now that I'm here, and have been working web development for peanuts for a while - I've learned so much it's great! I'm also doing something I really enjoy. I can honestly say I love going to work - even though I'm paid only a fraction of what I'm worth. But it's leading me to more things now - it's beginning to pay off. I've got a contractor job through the county I live in (where the pay is decent, and I work my own hours from home), and I'm juggling a number of other small side jobs for folks around the US. If you knew my economic situation, and what I made at my current 'full time' job - you'd tell me I was nuts, that the pay wasn't nearly enough. But I love what I do, and I've made it work. where I work isn't the best because the benefits suck (none), but they let me have off any time I need, whenever I need it (as a single parent with 2 little kids, that's 'must have flexibility'!) My longwinded point is - Francoeur is spot on. Do what you love - whatever your passionate about - the rest will fall into place - regardless of economics! Look at famous musicians for example - they start out not making anything, usually barely enough to make it show to show (if that). Having gigged all over Chicago and half of Illinois, it's difficult to make a good go of it, but when you're crazy in love with it - you just do it - the rest works itself out. You find creative ways to get there. Passion should be an every day ordeal - it makes life so very rewarding. Great post Skip!

The supper bowl eh? Typical Packers fan - can't type intelligently enough to know what they're talking about - but they'll talk regardless!!! Just kidding. We should've had Hanie in there all game - he was dissecting the Pack like a hot knife through butter. Oh well.

That's the same thing you say when a dude is balls deep in ur throat! j'k <3

Ir emember so far gone, when my friends were like 'omg duke nukem 3d, you don't have it/ fucking nub." So... I got it. I still have it - in my cd case to this very fucking day. Amazing. Game changing. We used to geek out to it (and wank peters)

Logitech makes great mic's that cost around $20.00 (headset/mic combo) You could probably find stand-alone mic's for even cheaper (say $10-15?) that would do that job just fine. In fact - I use a mic that is probably (no joke) from around 1995. It looks like this: I have a fatality headset/mic - but I use the old mic because I actually have it rigged through another computer & some recording software.

AMEN!

Real riders (motoGP) don't need all that shit - just pin it to win it! When in doubt? Gas it out!

Good points Kaba.

I would say MotoGP just because I like bikes. MX/SX ftw.

LOL BRO I WILL HEADSHOT YOU IN 1 ON 1 AND YOU WILL BE DED!!111

I used to play with a buddy of mine, we were in a few 'clans', but never a unit, and didn't do realism. 1.3... man... that was the stuff.

Off Topic Warning - I fucking love your avatar. Makes me giggle.

Two thumbs way up. Looks sharp mang. Funny aside, your gauges say 137. That was my racing number in MX!

bwahaha! bicycles are win! And Gooderham, I also drive vehicles until their dying breath. I'm in a '97 Toyota 4runner (my parents traded me because of my sons - I was in a '98 Toyota Tacoma with close to 200k miles). The 4runner had less miles and could fit my family and I comfortably so they traded me. I will probably have that truck until hell freezes over or until the body falls apart (which it's rusting out in some spots)! Looks like Plainviews got a good handle on responsibility - which is what I intend to use my old vehicle to instill in my kids "Boys, go wax the truck, learn to be responsible!" and I'll sit inside and play DoD :-D

Once again, I agree with both of you - there's a lot of things out there right now. And Wells you touched on the subject of strangers/education, which is absolutely insane. My gf being a junior high art teacher, gets to see the best of the best (worst of the worst?) when it comes to 'modernized' kids. She gets to hear about the fact that some of these kids have had more sexual partners by the age of 12 then her and I combined have probably had (disgusting). She knows about the whole 'this color wristband given means that they'll have sex with you' type shit that's going on with these YOUNG kids. And of course, I get the fun of listening to this stuff knowing that's the kind of shit my kids are going to grow up into. If it was up to me, I'd much rather be back in a small town city in the middle of American instead of Shitcago where all sorts of craziness abounds (I know, arguments either way). But the long and short of it is, I also get to hear about how the teachers hands are tied in many cases. One example was when Dee came home and said to me, "I think this kid at school is really depressed and needs to see someone, I don't know what to do", and being the art teacher, she's the fun teacher people confide in. This 'loner' kid told her that he feels 'completely alone' even when around family at home eating dinner, he feels alone every moment of every day (no, he wasn't abused/spanked as far as I know). You would think a teacher could tell someone and get some help for the kid - but if she does that, she has to pay for it out of her own pocket. The school district won't do anything. Why? If nothing is wrong with the kid, that's money wasted. Another time, some kid shoved and/or swung at one of the teachers at the school - he's still attending school there and didn't receive much punishment at all. If I had been a teacher I would be fired because I would have knocked that fucker on his ass and left him missing a few teeth. The amount of 'do nothing' attitude schools have with regards to these things today is mind-numbing. Dee cannot even refer children to the office, because if they don't feel the offense is 'worthy', they're immediately sent back to her room - no punishment given. What happened to the days kids feared the office? They'd get beaten with a board. I grew up in a catholic school - during the 'last hurrah' of the nuns. There were only 2 when I went there, and one of them EVERY SINGLE KID feared. I watched her walk up to the desk of a girl who couldn't find the right page in her book, the nun (Sister Catherine) picked up the girls book and chucked it across the room! She made her leave it there until class was over and then stay late to go over what was discussed in class to make sure she was paying attention. Can you imagine that happening today? That teacher would be fired and the kids would probably be given some sort of package to 'ease their suffering'. You guys both brought up excellent points, and the long and short of it is definitely that there are a lot of things at play here - but personally I'd still rather see a good spanking than nothing done at all out of fear that the CHILD might be angry/upset/feel lonely for a while. The great part about kids is - they'll get over it.

Nice car mang! You got a Ducati too? Holy shnitz. A Ducati is a 'dream bike' for me... some day...

I agree for the most part. Especially in cases of autism / mental handicap? In no way shape or form is physical punishment tolerable. Having a severely handicapped brother (mental age of around 6 years old, actual age of 25) I also understand the difficulties parents are faced with in these situations. It's difficult, but physical punishment only leads to worsening of problems. You and I have talked a lot about our families difficulties because of these things. I'm not saying punishment shouldn't 'modernize', but the way that most have 'modernized' it is to completely trivialize it by making the 'consequences' no where even comparable to the actions that earned them. Society (at least American society) appears to have this tendency to let way too much 'slide by' in my opinion, and this is evidenced by there being so much disrespect and self-righteous assholishness in the youth of today. There is way too much entitlement - which I believe stems from the American media and that 'gotta keep up with the Jones' mentality (no offense Jones!) So the ultimate 'blame' lies in a lot of places - but parents are supposed to be wise enough to guide their children to be better than that! As I said before, I'm aware there are effective techniques that are out there that do not involve physical interaction. My hat is off to the people that can actually pull that off without failing at some part of the whole process. That is where most things fail IMO. To do it effectively it needs to be extremely consistent, you need to be very rigid, and it has to be followed through every time - there is no room for error really or the effectiveness of the whole process is then drastically reduced overall, and the desired effects are minimized 10-fold. For people like myself - a single father of 2 boys, I simply can't do that every time. I try a few means of non-physical reprimand (time-in, time-out, explanations) but if the behavior continues beyond those, then a few swats on the ass and a long winded explanation ensue. I'm not a fan of belts and/or actual items being used to hit a kid - that's not spanking IMO. While I've seen it done, I was always spanked with a hand (and yes, when I got big enough I think it DID hurt them more than it hurt me - as the saying goes!). That said, I've probably only actually spanked my kids twice (they are 5 and 3) ever. I just think it's a viable choice when used properly, and has received way too much negative press because some fail parents beat the shit out of their kids and call it 'spanking'.

Okay, Those are some extreme ideas. Just because you spank does not mean you're going to have a closed relationship. Like Zachow, I was spanked as punishment. Note, I said as punishment. There is abuse (which is what causes the things you describe), and there is punishment. My relationship with my parents was, is, and has always been very close. I talked to them about EVERYTHING. I came to them BEFORE the first time I had sex because I had questions (insert jokes here). And my mom used to spank the shit outta' me! My cousins had it even worse, leather belts? They had wooden spoons/paddles/whatever else used until it BROKE. They are healthy citizens who have good relationships with their parents too. In fact, look at the times - these days no one spanks their kid, and suicide rates are far higher than when punishment was enforced with spanking... but using your examples, that should be the opposite. There are a lot of variables that go into how people turn out, spanking (when used as appropriate punishment) is a very small portion of that IMO. And when you look around, and you see 15 year olds beating homeless guys to death just for kicks, or you see the YOUTH today holding NO respect for any of their elders, any people of power, any laws and without any concern for anyone but themselves... I'd bet 10:1 that they weren't spanked - ever. While there are certainly parenting methods that work without spanking as a consequence, they DO have consequences that DO make the kids temporarily angry/hurt/frustrated with their parents. Because of that, are THOSE going to lead to closed relationships as well? Doubtful. Lets compare a couple examples (and since we're talking in extremes I'll keep that in mind): How about the parent who spanks his kid because the kid did something wrong, then explains why he got spanked and why he was in trouble (note he used spanking as punishment). The kid understands and life continues. Another parent locks his kid in a closet and doesn't allow him to eat anything for 12 hours, explaining why he was bad and why he's in trouble (he didn't use spanking as punishment). Which will lead to a more closed relationship? My point is - any form of punishment when taken to levels of 'abuse' can (and probably will) have dire consequences. The hard part is quantifying what levels constitute 'abuse'. But not holding children accountable and letting them be 'little individuals' and treating them as adults does NOTHING to open relationships, and completely fails to instill any sense of respect or consequence which they eventually will be faced with in life (and will ultimately probably lead to some form of internal conflict). Just my $.02. Spanking is fine, abuse is not.

Two thumbs WAY up. As others have said - back when spanking was 'okay', parents who used it properly and effectively had good kids. Even the parents who didn't use it properly, still had kids that would listen or show some form of respect to adults. Now? You've got high school 'guys' who will gang-up and punch a marines wife outside of a movie theater. Pretty sad. I'd rather have people beating the shit outta kids with leather belts any day of the week than have kids around like we have currently running around ruining the world.

Yea, I think I got your underlying point but was kind of going off in a different direction with it. For me I would compare it to when one families kid goes missing and it's national headline news and everyones on the edge of their seat, meanwhile in that same week while they're searching for random families lost kid and all of America is talking about it, 1200 others are abducted and never heard about or from again. It's the same situation - so why the one is chosen for national news and not the thousands of others? Who knows! I hope all the sensationalism this guy has gotten doesn't make him turn back to the bad things though... that would be a shame I like feel good stories, and this one made me feel good in my pants.

While there is plenty that can be said about situations very similar to what you're describing with hundreds (if not thousands) of Americans on a daily basis, I think there is great merit to something like this receiving so much play. It gives those people who feel like life is worthless a chance to realize it's not. It's a glimmer of hope for some, and it's a feel good for others. Maybe it will make those guys at the mini-mart actually chase after their dream ("if he can do it, so can I!") Who knows. Regardless I think it's awesome. There's not enough kindness/humanity in this world anymore - too many people have that "why him, why not me? wtf, piece of shit." attitude. You give someone an inch, and it's a guarantee they'll want a mile and won't even consider returning the favor. And sadly, if you DO give someone something, everyone else either wants some to, or wonders why you didn't give it to them. Sadly, most people can't afford to give to EVERYONE, and there's more of 'them that didn't get helped' than 'those who got helped', so they people doing the helping always look like an ass to the majority of the people who whine and complain because they didn't get some. Here's a guy who had it and lost it, and has come to realize the errors of his ways. Someone went out of their way to let him tell his story, and he's got another chance. I hope he doesn't fuck up - I'm rootin' for this guy. Previously? I probably would've said 'whatever', but I'm not that way anymore. I'm happy for this dude, genuinely. I hope he makes it huge and gets billions.

I worked with a guy for around a year or so, he was a 'manager' for wrestlers on a regional level. He knew a lot of the guys you see on TV, but would rarely make national appearances. He's pretty well known at the local scene around here. We used to talk about it quite a bit - the things he'd do to get a rise out of the crowd were pretty comical. He said those guys who are on TV are some really good actors, he also said some of what you see on TV really actually hurts quite a bit. Much of it is fake (as we all know) but some of it he said legitimately is painful as hell.

LMAO! Perfecto!... or Wingates mom, isn't that right Parker? :-D

I agree also! Sometimes I can be guilty of it when I'm talking with friends and joking around 'talkin in my g4m3r speAk!11one' - but for the most part I try to type in a moderately intelligent way. Thank god for spell check though Nice red underline is an instant 'uh-oh'!

Hey gang, Lets just remember that when we're pubbing if you notice one side getting absolutely slaughtered, don't just keep stacking teams and capping out. Take an opportunity to join the 'underdogs' and try and make it more fair. I heard some unfortunate news from a pubber about some team stacking and a lot of people leaving the pub because of it. It's fun to own some people sometimes, but don't just keep capping out and keeping the teams stacked. That's a good way to kill a pub IMO. Just keep that in mind, the next time you look at the scores and everyone on your team is 24-4, and everyone on the other team is 1-15, consider switching just to keep things honest. It couldn't hurt.