Cell Phone Etiquette

My friend Josh Cook posted a transcript of a podcast entitled "Mr. Manners’ Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Polite Life". I agree with his statement that this definitely needs to be shared with everyone!

There are a lot of people that know how to use a cellphone in the way that it was intended. Originally, people used cellphones for emergencies when they were away from their home or office. Now, they are a tool that many people use in order to give off the impression that they are important. Also, cellphones get abused way too much by selfish people who have little to no regard for those around them.

If you are in my presence, there aren't very many ways to send me over the edge anymore. Once you have kids, your tolerance increases exponentially. But here are a couple of sure-fire ways to ensure that you will never be invited to spend time around me EVER again:

a) Enter my home (or my presence in general) with a Bluetooth headset on your ear. A few years ago when these started becoming popular, I figured that I would get used to them. Heck, I even owned one myself for a while. No such luck. I hate these devices almost as much as the people who idly wear them. I especially loathe the individuals that will wear the ear piece for 24 solid hours, and not receive one phone call. Uggh!!

b) Have me as a guest in your home, make small talk with me, and proceed to make a series of phone calls to people about things that could obviously wait until I leave! I only know of one person who is this rude, and this particular person is selfish in general so why would expect them to operate in a less-than-selfish manner just because I'm a guest in their home? That was my fault for expecting so much...I'll take that blame for that one.

We'll just add this to the ever-expanding list of things that I dislike about Atlanta, which appears to be a breeding ground for this growing lack of cellphone etiquette.

Trick yourself into having the best.week.ever.

I've got a really simple formula for you. Here goes:

Positive Words + Repetition = Stress-Free Contentment

I'm not making this up, folks. And no, I haven't been reading a bunch of self-help books on my lunch hour lately. I have definitely been praying a lot more though, and as a result my thoughts throughout the day have begun aligning themselves with not only the spiritual presence of God, but also the positive words that I speak throughout the day.

Monday morning at 5am as I turned off my alarm clock, I decided to put a smile on my face. No, I am never happy to be up at 5am, so I just pretended to be. By the time I exited the shower and started doing my hair, I began thinking to myself "I am so happy that the kids are healthy; I am so happy that I have enough eggs in the 'fridge to make some omelettes for breakfast; I can't wait to go to the gym today and exercise to the new songs I downloaded to my playlist; blah blah blah" By the time I finished styling my hair, Chris was already awake. He is not hardly a morning person, and usually grumbles a quick "'morning, babe", as he heads to the shower. But on this particular morning, after he looked at me for a moment, he said, "Good Morning, how are you this morning?! Ready for breakfast?!" Okay, he's NEVER that chipper. My positive demeanor had spread to him in just a matter of seconds!

My son Olan has Chris's personality, so please don't go expecting any type of warm, fuzzy morning talks with Olan. Ever. We woke Olan up and told him that we had breakfast ready and that his favorite show had already started. He flashed the biggest smile ever, and raced off to the bathroom to take care of business before joining us for breakfast. Wow! Even my 3-year old was impacted by the rays of sunshine that had now began to form in our household at 5:40am! Cassie is already chipper in the morning by default, so she only added to the already current of happiness permeating the Gill household.

We all set out on our journey that morning, and the entire day and evening to follow were just as much fun! In fact, every single day this week has followed suit (despite Olan running a temp yesterday due to the onset of a cold; he's much better this morning). And just think, this all stemmed from that fake smile that I put on my face as I woke up Monday morning. Not only that, but if this entire week full of joy stemmed from a Monday morning at 5:00am, then I can only imagine how enjoyable the weekend is going to be! :-)

"... of the Week"

Just a few at the moment.

Recipe of the Week: Quick and Easy Enchiladas I made these spur of the moment last night, and Chris raved about them! This was a great snack/meal to eat while watching "24".

Television Quote of the Week: Courtesy of "The Office"
Jim: Hey! Wanna play a prank on Andy?
Ryan: Not right now, but ask me again in...10 years ago.

Why the 2007 Super Bowl matters to me

Update (2:50pm)

OMG, remember the Super Bowl Shuffle from 1985?! Maybe the Bears will do a remake of that this year!



Video courtesy of youtube.com
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I have NEVER cared much about football. I will never, ever turn on a football game if I'm home by myself...I'm just not interested. Even during the Super Bowl, I only watch the singing of the national anthem, the 1st two quarters, and the halftime show. Of course, I also relish the commercials, but interest in the actual game itself has just never been there. Yet, in a few weeks when the Chicago Bears meet the Indianapolis Colts for the season-ending championship game, I will be front and center for all pre-game festivities, the entire game, and the post-game show as well. There are four reasons why this will be the first year that I care about the Super Bowl at all:

1) My husband is the biggest football fan I've ever seen, met, or been within 10 feet of in my life. Even more importantly, he is a die-hard Chicago Bears fan, and has been one since he was a little boy. His childhood was spent living in Chicago, and the fans there are loyal and true to their sports teams, even when the teams have losing records year after year. Thus, my son has had a Chicago Bears jacket, hat, and even a pennant in his room before he was even born.

2) This is the first year that a black coach is taking a team to the Super Bowl, let alone two black coaches!! Bears coach Lovie Smith, and Colts coach Tony Dungy are just all-around wonderful guys from every account I've ever heard. As I heard someone put it this morning, either way, a black coach will have a Super Bowl ring for the first time. This makes me proud. :-)

3) Both Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning have had this whole "Best player/coach to never win a Super Bowl" thing haunting them. Tony Dungy built an awesome Tampa Bay Buccaneers team a few years back, only to be fired when they didn't go to the Super Bowl. The following year, Joe Gruden becomes the Bucs coach and takes "Tony Dungy's team" to the Super Bowl. Also, did you see the look of horror on Peyton Manning's face during the last 2 minutes of the Colts-Patriots game? He had his head down the whole time; couldn't even watch, poor thing. He has already lived through an AFC championship loss 3 times in a row. He's an amazing player and this is finally his time!

4) Finally, after what Dungy has gone through recently, it would bring a smile to my face to see him smile due to a Super Bowl win.

Q100/V103 Unity Mixer (Part 2)

Many of Q100's black listeners were calling in for much of the morning on Tuesday wanting an update on how Unity Night at the Lotus Lounge turned out. This suggests to me that the many of the blacks that listen to Q100 were as hopeful as Bert was that the evening would be a success. Following is the recap of the evening per Bert:

[The line to get into the Lotus Lounge on Unity Night was literally wrapped around the building, even snaking into a nearby parking garage. 10 times the expected number of people showed up! (I thought to myself, "Yay! This must have made Bert pretty happy.") However, Bert went on to say that 95% of the people that showed up were black. He even went on to say that the whites that actually did show up were mostly affiliated either with Q100 or with the Lotus Lounge management.]

Needless to say, Bert was severely let down by the white listeners not showing up. There have been theories put forth by the Q100 DJs along with the Q100 listening audience. Let's evaluate some of them and draw a conclusion if possible:

Theory #1 - V103 DJs Frank and Wanda told their listeners that the party started at 7pm, instead of 9pm; 9pm was the official opening time given to the Q100 DJs and listeners by Lotus Lounge management.

** Plausibility: 30% Bert mentioned last week that Frank joked about CP time (Colored-People Time) being a factor in what time he would need to tell the V103 listeners that the party started. He raised a good point that if he were to tell his listeners that the party started at 9pm (which was the official time), the V103 listeners wouldn't show up until midnight! Some of the white Q100 listeners even called in to point out that they showed up at the Lotus Lounge by 9pm, and the line was already wrapped around the building, so they just kept driving. Some even said that Lotus Lounge officials told them as they parked their cars that there could be a wait as long as 2 hours to get in, so they hopped back into their cars and took off. I give the plausibility of this theory a 3 out of 10; most clubs that draw mostly white patrons don't have lines that are very long at all, so I can see how whites would be turned off by the line., especially if there were no other whites in the line. However, I seriously doubt that enough black club-goers were already in line by 8:30-9pm to cause the line to be long enough to turn away white club-goers.

Theory #2 - Whites, in general, do not take off work for the MLK holiday, and thus, did not want to be out partying on a work night.

** Plausibility: 50% I feel that the chances of this theory being a factor in the abysmal white turnout are higher than the first theory, although, I'm still not buying this as the determining factor. I have tons of both white and black friends and acquaintances. One thing about white people has always intrigued me: their ability to be out until dawn, and still make it to work early/on time the next morning. I even noticed this as a student at UGA. Most of my black friends (myself included) couldn't party all night and expect to be seen anywhere before noon the next day. That's why I give this a 5 out of 10 plausibility score.

Theory #3 - Whites, in general, are afraid of being in a social environment with a large number of blacks AKA "The Bert Theory"

** Plausibility: 85% Now, my friends, we're cooking with oil. We don't need very much evidential support for this one do we? Just look at the facts. As Jeff Dauhler of Q100 pointed out a few days ago, whites don't go looking for black clubs to party at on a regular basis. The same can be said of blacks. People tend to migrate toward what's familiar to them and what makes them comfortable. In addition to that, let's look back at what happened in the mid-90's when blacks started migrating toward Buckhead to party and hangout in big numbers. I hate to point this out, but the rate of violence, including death, increased to a large degree. Every instance of shootings that made the headlines was involving black party-goers. If you go to a particular area regularly to party and hangout for years without incident, and all of a sudden after a certain group of people begin showing up in huge numbers (which contributes to the rate of crime in the aforementioned particular area) wouldn't that spurn your interest in being around this certain group of people in such a social setting? Tami says "Yes" on all counts. What's going on, indeed, Shirley Franklin?

I must admit that I admire Bert Weiss for coming up with this idea in the first place. His intentions were positive, albeit naive. Bert has lots of black friends that he socializes with on a regular basis. Bert has gone to black clubs and events and has had no problems. He seems like a great guy, who just wanted to show a large group of people what they were missing. Bert says that he feels too emotional about his disappointment over the turnout to continue theorizing for now. He mentioned that Q100 could resume discussion about it a couple of weeks from now. He plans to confer with Frank and Wanda to find out their opinion on trying this event again in the future. I'm really looking forward to hearing Frank and Wanda's opinion on how things turned out; that's the only thing missing from this equation. Too bad I can't stomach V103 for more than a few minutes at a time.

Q100/V103 Unity Mixer (Part 1)

I listen to "The Bert Show" on Q100 (100.5FM) every morning on the way to work. Q100 is the most musically diverse station that we currently have in Atlanta. I believe that this is what draws listeners of a variety of musical tastes, nationalities, and races to the station. I also feel that the listeners continue to tune in to Q100 every morning because "The Bert Show" is completely hilarious, informative, and objective with commentary. I would venture to guess that it is the most listened to morning show in Atlanta.

Well, during all the hype last year surrounding CBS primetime reality show "Survivor", Q100 host Bert Weiss decided to get Frank Ski, a black local radio host from V-103, to weigh in and share his feelings about CBS and their decision to divide the Survivor tribes based on race for the first time. V-103 is a R&B/Hip-Hop station that caters mostly to blacks in their late twenties and older (I'll explain why I used the word "caters" shortly).

During the conversation with Frank, Bert decided that they should promote an event for listeners at both of their stations that would bolster diversity. Frank was obviously put on the spot, but agreed. I mean, what was he going to say? I used to listen to V-103 from time to time back in 1998 when Frank first became host of V-103, and there's a lot of race-baiting that goes on during their 4 hours on the air every morning. I stopped listening all together because it just got old very quickly. (i.e. Frank went on a tirade one morning in particular asking the listening audience "Why is it that in the black neighborhoods, they sell beer by the six-pack with no option to buy individually...but in the white neighborhoods, the option is available to buy beer individually?" First of all, Frank, whites buy wine, vodka, and enough other alcoholic beverages in huge numbers so that the package stores/bottle shops in mostly white neighborhoods generate enough capital without depending on beer sales. These same types of stores in mostly black neighborhoods mostly make money off of beer, so to turn a profit and continue meeting the monthly rent of the store, they need to be sure to sell the beer off in bulk.) Personally, I'd like to see more concern with why the students at black schools have SAT scores that are consistently lower than students that attend white schools. Or why the rate of crime continues to soar to new heights in the black neighborhoods. But I guess that's just me. :-s)

So of course I smirked to myself when Frank went along with Bert's idea to throw the "Unity Party" on the weekend of the MLK Holiday, because this doesn't sound like the kind of thing that Frank Ski would go along with in normal circumstances. But again, what else could he say with both his listeners and Q100's listeners all tuned in to the same conversation on both dials at the same time?

Also, among all of the DJ's on both Q100 and V-103, Bert is the only one with a racially diverse group of personal friends. He was the only one that felt certain that the mixer would be a great idea and a success. As the weeks went by, he started getting a lot of resistance from different club owners, and even from several emails that he received. Something occured to Bert the week before the event. "What if V-103's listeners, and only the black listeners from Q100 show up? What if the whites don't come out at all?"

The party happened on Sunday, January 14, the day before the official MLK holiday. I'll post tomorrow about how everything turned out according to one Bert Weiss.


Picture courtesy of sandrarose.com

Angry, Self-Righteous Negro Hour

I decided to get off of my high horse this morning, and tune in to the MLK Commemoration Program at 10am. I was dreading it after the way that the 'black folks' behaved at the funeral of Coretta Scott King early last year. It's an annual program broadcast live from Ebenezer Baptist Church here in Atlanta, GA. that pays tribute to the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Except, not so much on the 'paying tribute' front anymore. I seriously believe that black liberals are going to spend the rest of the time President Bush is in office using every gathering of a bunch of black folks to bash the current administration.

When I turned on the television, Lt. Governor Casey Cagle was just arriving at the podium to speak. Apparently before he stepped up to speak, there had been much singing from the choir, and a lot of speaking/preaching from other guests on the program. Cagle stated excitedly, "Now that's what you call 'having church' huh?!" No one in the crowd responded at all. Why? Because they'd rather listen to John 'I'm worth billions and do not associate with blacks, yet I will still try to aid in convincing you that G W Bush hates you' Kerry, and watch him get full of the Holy Ghost and dance to the gospel music as though he grew up in a black, southern Baptist church or something. I know that's a run-on sentence, but I'm sorry. Kerry sucks more than my Bissell.

Once Cagle returns to his seat after a less than hearty welcome or reaction to his speech, Mayor Shirley Franklin steps up to the podium. She starts reading very loudly from a paper in front of her. She's reciting the words from Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On". She became even louder and more animated when she read the line "...war is not the answer." Give me a break, Shirley. The City of Atlanta is total crap. Black-on-black crime is still on the rise, potholes are still everywhere, and the city council is still full of self-righteous negroes parking their friggin' Jaguars in their 4-car garages, while blaming "the white man" for all the problems with the "black community". Ms. Franklin, please stop pointing at President Bush's flaws when yours greatly outnumber his, and all you run is a little city unsuccessfully trying to be L.A. When she finally sits down, Rev. Dr. Floyd Flake steps up to the podium. He goes on some tirade about George Bush and the war, and blah, blah, blah, and I'm over it.

These people are an insult to everything that MLK was and stood for. They aren't even worthy to carry his bags to the curb, let alone memorialize him for an hour in celebration of his birthday. What an affront to the legacy of a man who stood for so much more.

*climbs back upon high horse*

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (movie trailer)

I actually just finished reading the book last night and I am still speechless! I was definitely not prepared for the last 3 chapters at all. Book 6, "HP: The Half-Blood Prince" has already been spoiled for me, unfortunately, but I will still read it as though I don't know how it ends.

Also, you may have already heard that Book 7 entitled, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", is already the #1 selling book on Amazon.com. But here's the hilarious part: The book doesn't even have a publication date yet! For that matter, it's very likely that J.K. Rowling hasn't even completed the writing of the book! We are a world of obsessed HP readers, indeed.

Click here to see the movie trailer for "Order of the Phoenix". I don't have any of the HP movies on DVD yet; I preferred to finish the first 6 books before I started watching any of the movies. I'll wait for the 5 DVD set which I hope will be released by Christmas of this year.

Star-struck!

I'm beginning to get used to seeing somewhat high-profile people on a semi-regular basis. I'm doing my best to get used to seeing them walking in the same parking lot with me and through the specially designated employee areas with me as we enter CNN. I attend a spin class twice a week at the athletic club in the building where I work. So yesterday, I was on my bike getting warmed up waiting on the instructor to enter, and in walks Brian Jordan. He just walks in looking for a bike.

I look around the room to see if anyone else has noticed that Brian Jordan, one time joint Major League Baseball player (Atlanta Braves) and NFL player (Atlanta Falcons), was circling the room looking for a bike. I used to have a poster of this guy in my bedroom when I was in high school, for crying out loud! It turns out that everyone else was doing the same thing I was doing...looking around the room to gauge everyone else's reactions. Finally, Jordan left after realizing too late that you can't show up at 12:05pm for a 12:10pm spin class the first official week back to work from the New Year. (That's another topic worthy of it's own post!).

A litter later today, I'll update this post with a few of my celebrity encounters over the past 10 years; they've been interesting to say the least. :-)

The experience of diversity

Happy Friday, everyone!

If you haven't already, please go and visit La Shawn Barber's Corner and read today's post. In it, she cites an article written by Steve Sailer entitled "Fragmented Future". Sailer asserts that forced diversity does more harm than good as far as issues of trusting others are concerned.

After reading the article, I began to reflect on my own life and experiences. This will probably tick some people off, but I'm only being honest. When my husband and I went looking for our first home about 7 years ago, he and I were of a similar mindset during our search. We knew that we had three options here in metro-Atlanta. Option 1: Live in an "all-black" neighborhood. Option 2: Live in an "all-white" neighborhood. Option 3: Live in a racially diverse neighborhood.

My husband and I knew immediately that Option 1 was not for us. Here is why: He and I have both noticed in our experience that when blacks are in a majority situation, there tends to be a huge lack of accountability among the group. We also considered the disappointment that we would feel if we tried to re-sell a home in a majority black neighborhood, factoring things in like lack of appreciation, property value, etc. Does this mean that I hate being around blacks? Of course not, so please don't misunderstand. My husband and I just base our decision on the facts and on what we have experienced on a daily basis.

Then came the discussion of Option 2. In an ideal world, this may work. But we were both smart enough to know that this was not a good idea for us. We didn't want to be the lone black family that caused everyone to get nervous and throw up their hands thinking to themselves, "There goes the neighborhood!". But the question is are they wrong for feeling this way? I would answer with a realistic and resounding NO since they too are basing their feelings on experiences and facts.

Finally, we came to the conclusion that we would better off looking into Option 3:. We ultimately came to live in an diverse (majority white, few blacks here and there), established middle class neighborhood. We have been living here for going on 6 years, and I thank God everyday for our home life. We are the only blacks on our street, and we are extremely close to all of the neighbors surrounding our home. In fact, we are so close to our next door neighbors that we trust them to watch our children, which is saying a LOT believe me. We don't trust our kids with most people in our family!

I know that we will eventually need to move into a bigger home. When we moved into the house we currently live in, our children hadn't been born yet so our need for space was much smaller. I am dreading the thought of leaving this neighborhood. I know in my heart that the possibility is there that we may not ever have neighbors like this again. But I feel certain that we will be able to find another diverse, established neighborhood with much bigger homes in this general area. In local papers, I have seen the city I live in referred to as "the gem of metro-Atlanta area". This makes me feel that my experience over the last 6 years has possibly been the exception and not the rule. I'm sure that Sailer's article "Fragmented Future" has merit, in a more general sense anyway.

What would YOU do?

I have been asking myself this ever since yesterday when I first read the story of a real-life hero named Wesley Autrey. It was one of the top stories on CNN.com, and rightfully so.

You are awaiting the subway train as you do every single day before/after work. Suddenly, you see someone in a fit of erratic, involuntary movements dive from the subway platform onto the tracks below. Add to this the fact that both your 4 year-old and 6 year-old children are with you, witnessing this horrific situation. What would you do?

There are so many options and things to consider. The first thing that comes to my mind as a parent is that if my children are with me, my only concern is making sure that I am with them at all times to protect them from harm. The second thing that comes to my mind as a parent is that if my child were to begin seizing and suddenly dive onto the subway tracks below during a fit of epilepsy, I would want someone to do whatever it takes to protect him if I wasn't there to help. So what would I actually do?

Please read the story of Wesley Autrey, a 50-year old New Yorker who was in the exact situation that I have described. He answered this lingering question "What would you do?" by doing. His actions give hope in a selfish, greed-filled world. God Bless Wesley Autrey for his selflessness and compassion.

See story on [CNN.com]

Auld Lang Syne

I have had a wonderful time during the Christmas holiday break! This is the first time that I've actually been in Atlanta with this much time off from work. We usually go to Orlando this time of year. It was a nice change of pace to be able to wake up whenever we wanted, within reason, of course. We've got tots you know. :-)

We've literally been visiting family almost every single day since Christmas morning. Chris even had some family he's extremely close to from Alaska stop through this weekend, and we had an amazing time with them! The kids started getting a tad worn out by this weekend, though. So did Chris and I. We had one more day of visiting this afternoon, and we were home by 7:30. Cassie has been in bed for an hour, Chris has been asleep for an hour and a half. Olan and I are the only ones that appear to have insomnia!

I wonder if my insomnia tonight has anything to do with the fact that I'm focusing on what I did wrong in 2006. I have been in bed since 9:30 this evening trying to go to sleep and I just can't stop tossing and turning. I'm reminded of a scene from the middle of the book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", which I'm reading now, where Professor Snape tells Harry to empty his mind of all emotions before he goes to bed. A person with as many thoughts constantly swishing around in their head as myself needs to attempt this. I actually neglected to pray this evening before bed, and that's probably the biggest cause of my inability to rest.

Also, I go back to work tomorrow morning for the first time in 11 days. I'm already beginning to obsess over what this new year will be like at CNN: Will there be anymore inner-dept structural/hierarchal changes? Will anyone leave the company? (no one ever leaves CNN, apparently, so that would be the shock of the decade) Will I receive a promotion? (Someone put a bug in my ear before Thanksgiving about some possibilities, so who knows) This all makes me somewhat antsy, so I really need to go and pray to God, so that I can leave all of this at his feet tonight before I begin tomorrow anew!


Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne ?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.