How I got the day off for the WHITE SOX PARADE!

Hmmmmmm....!
I urgently needed Friday off for the White Sox parade downtown, but I knew the Boss would not allow me to take a leave. I thought that maybe if I acted "CRAZY" then he would tell me to
take a few days off. So I hung upside down on the ceiling and made funny noises. My blonde co-worker asked me what I was doing I told her that I was pretending
to be a light bulb so that the Boss would think I was "CRAZY" and give me a few days off. A few minutes later the Boss came into the office and asked "What are
you doing?" I told him I was a light bulb. He said "You are clearly stressed out. Go home and recuperate for a couple of days". I jumped down and walked out of the office. When my co-worker (the blonde) followed me, the Boss asked her"
....and where do you think you're going?" (You're gonna love this.) She said, "I'm going
home too, I can't work in the dark!"

Quirks

Time to share and get to know your neighbors. What are some of your quirks?

When I eat a meal, the last bite has to be the best tasting thing on the dish.
When I set my alarm, I set 2 alarms, one for my wake up time and one for my get up time. When I set my alarm, the time has to equal up to the number 13. I.E.7:06am, 6:52am. I always rinse my dishes before placing them in the dishwasher. I always squeeze off a batch before I go on a date. On certain exercise machines I always seat down from the same side if there is an option to sit from either way. When I use a public bathroom, I hate touching the doorknob with my newly cleaned hands and use the paper towel I used to wash my hands. While in my doorway before I leave the house, I have to visually look at my keys before I leave. When I sign my name I always use my middle initial and always with a black pen. When I sleep alone, I have to sleep on the side closest to the door. My money is always face up and in order of dominations.
When I open a beer, I always hold the bottle up and look at it from the bottom.
When I wake up in the morning, the bathroom is always my first stop.
After starting my car, the music has to be set on what I want to listen to before I drive off.
On the bus or train, I have to sit on the outside seat.
When watching football on Saturday or Sunday's I have to use two tv's.
When making coffee, the sugar goes in the cup first.
On a plane I have to sit in a window seat.
While sleeping, I have to have at least two pillows.
I always drink my liquor straight.
And last but not least, I do not burp, belch, pass gas, or fart in a public place or otherwise emit fumes (LOL)

Bird Flu!

I had to ask myself, is this Bird Flu something that I should be worried about? Over this past weekend I thought about some things. Being a black man from the South, I know from an early age, my meat diet was mostly chicken. Can you imagine if this thing hits the United States, what it will do to chicken industry, let alone the "black community"? Two out of the four Sunday's of the month, chicken was apart of my Sunday dinner. Hell, if we ate dinner at church, nine out of ten times the meat was chicken. In the Boys Scouts, we sold chicken dinners. At my family reunions, there were at least six kinds of chicken you had to choose from. At lunch or dinner, to pick the lazy way out, I sometimes go to KFC's or Popeye's. At the grocery store, you can always find a good deal on chicken. And now so many of my brothers and sisters don't even eat red meat, but depend on fish or chicken to eat. So again I ask myself, what will happen if we had to stop eating chicken.

I did a little studying to answer some of my questions and this is what I found out.

1. Is there a cure for bird flu?
"No. There's no cure for any kind of flu. However, antiviral drugs taken very soon after symptoms -- such as a sudden fever -- appear make the illness less severe. The H5N1 bird flu is resistant to an older class of flu drugs, but remains sensitive to Tamiflu and Relenza".
I should have known this answer, because of the common cold can't be cured.

2. Should individuals stock up on flu drugs?
"No. Several flu experts tell WebMD that they are not stocking up on flu drugs, and they strongly recommend that individuals follow their lead.
Why? First of all, the drugs are in short supply. In the event of a pandemic, public health workers will need all the flu drugs they can get in order to treat people actually exposed to the virus. The drugs won't do nearly as much good sitting in people's medicine cabinets".
My thing is even if we had the drugs on hand, when would we take them? Without a flu test, it's hard to know whether your symptoms are the flu or another respiratory infection. And the pills only work against the flu.

3. Can you get bird flu from eating chicken or other poultry?
"No -- if the meat is fully cooked. Cooking kills flu viruses in poultry, meat, and eggs".
Now come on, you think I'm going to trust eatting chicken that has "bird flu" by making sure its cooked well done? That's like not washing the fresh cut greens they sell in the bag, because it says they were "pre-wash", it's not going to happen.

4. How do you catch bird flu?
"People have caught bird flu from handling infected poultry and from surfaces contaminated with poultry feces. There are a few suspected cases of human-to-human bird flu transmission. This happened only after prolonged face-to-face contact. But bird flu has not learned how to spread easily from person to person".

The bottom line is that bird flu virus can survive on raw meat from infected poultry, so they want you to use hygiene -- hand washing and the disinfecting of all surfaces that come in contact with the meat -- is essential. But I don't think all this will be necessary, cause when the first out break happens here in the states, no more eatting chicken for me. And years of tradition of black people eatting chicken will come to a HAULT!

Sometimes, I sit back and wonder. You know what I mean?

YES I'M BACK!!


Not sure if you saw All Pro NFL wide receiver Laveranues Coles, on Oprah yesterday, but he had the courage to come out and tell the story of him being sexualy abused as a child by his step father. I was moved by the show, in hearing that he was handled in such a manner, especially at a very young age of his development. It was also sad for anyone to live through something like that for years at the hands of his own step father. He was supposed to be the one to protect him, but instead he violated an honorable position of manhood. He should pay dearly his offense. It is not surprising that he, (Laveranues) is or would consider himself to be gay. His sexuality on the show was not in question but we can rest assure it will come into focus.
If you missed it, here are some highlights from the show......
KD

A Very Special Oprah














Laveranues Coles was the guest on Oprah. The New York Jets wide receiver details years of sexual abuse as a child by his former stepfather. It's a significant story, first reported by the The New York Times last month and well outside the norm for sports and the NFL where players rarely expose potentially embarrassing stories about their past. Laveranues' motivation was quite simple; the baller says that he came forward because he doesn't want other young boys to suffer in silence. Laveranues Coles is the guest on today's Oprah. The New York Jets wide receiver details years of sexual abuse as a child by his former stepfather. It's a significant story, first reported by the The New York Times last month and well outside the norm for sports and the NFL where players rarely expose potentially embarrassing stories about their past. Laveranues' motivation was quite simple; the baller says that he came forward because he doesn't want other young boys to suffer in silence.

Laveranues said that his stepfather raped him almost daily from aged 10 to 13. It affected his grades, behavior and relationships with almost everyone in his life—and he still carries the weight. "It's among the reasons why I am not married or have a girlfriend. I don't know? Does someone want to be with me after everything that I've been through."

He also says that the abuse made him question his sexuality, but the most important factor being that he "wasn't being allowed to decide" for himself. But more importantly, his words were guarded and he chose to equate his stepfather's behavior with power and dominance, as opposed to sexuality. "He probably would have done the same thing to a little girl." The abuse came to light when he was 13 years old, after the stepfather told Laveranues friends' that the boy was gay. (That's what psychiatrists call projecting, right?) "I didn't understand why he was telling people this, why he was doing these things to me and then making up stories." He got into several fights at school, and later admitted the truth to school officials and police officers.

Laveranues' mother, Sirreta Willaims, was also a guest on the show. She was called to the school that day and counselors revealed the truth. The stepfather was taken away, he served time in prison, and mom and son shuttled from relative to relative. Laveranues says that he forced himself to excel and athletics and his studies to re-assert control over his life. One interesting exchange between Oprah and the mother was on the couple's sex life, and it went just a little left field. Oprah asked in rapid-fire: "So you and your husband were having sex? Was he being satisfied? So you had no reason to think he would go elsewhere?" Obviously, she was trying to establish that the husband appeared "normal", but that interaction could have been phrased better. But we understand where she was trying to go; its a testament to O's strength that people are comfortable with her and will answer those questions. No questions were asked about the ball player's sex life. The baller says that until now, he and his mom have never spoken about the abuse. It's not that she didn't care; Ms. Williams says that she believed that she had utterly failed her son and could not help him heal. That's fairly common in abuse situations to try to bury the past; a psychiatrist was on hand to walk them through their emotions and promised follow-up. Their story was so touching, you almost wanted to reach through the television and give him a big hug.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2165781