Nick S

Congrats!!!!

What is even more sad is I know of a bar that sponsor's softball teams where a fight broke out between drunk softball team members and several people were beaten severely with baseball bats. Not sure if anyone died as I was young at the time but I remember the baseball bats in my backyard after the incident.

:roulette: :icon_twisted: I jinxed myself of course. On Friday morning I woke up to find my phone line was unable to receive calls into the house on both phones. Unfortunately, I have to wait until Monday to get the service fixed!!!!! I can't forward the calls to my cell phone either since I don't have long distance on the house phones...uggggghhh....maybe someday I'll learn to not reply to these threads LOL Oh well...Verizon gave me their usual between 8AM- 8PM on Monday is when they will be here.

Years ago when I was a kid I used to go kayaking with a group I belonged to. We'd kayak down part of the Delaware River then eat lunch and kayak back. I haven't been in years but I remember it was tons of fun. Great exercise too. We never went in the real rapid area of the Delaware but kept to calm waters. It was still a blast though.

You are one cool dad!!!

I have had no luck with Verizon either. Mom (who I live with) has always had Verizon in the house despite the many issues that they have caused and made worse. I dread calling them to fix things because usually they make the situation worse and I have 2 to 3 trucks in front of my house for each visit. Mom got Verizon for our two phone lines and the internet we have (DSL). Basically the tech told us each time that we should upgrade to Vios but what I don't understand is that if they can't fix a much less complex system why should we go to Vios that's more complex and more than likely more difficult to fix. Bry@n I wish you worked in my area because the techs that I've had come to my house couldn't find the difference between their a** and a hole in the ground. I've had several techs here and each time they "fix" the problem with either the phones or the internet and it works for a few days and then it goes back out again. When we get bad storms...we're screwed because the wires get wet outside the house and it screws up the connection. I've only been able to go 6 months without a tech here at the house before another problem arose. I don't like VIOS because I like a hardline telephone in the event of an emergency. Dealing with 911 on a cell or cable phone line takes too much time ( I know because I'm in the business of emergency management and deal with this issues for clients). I work out of the home so when our phones or the internet goes down I'm out of business. Verizon does not care at all. I might not have revenue in the millions but every dollar I make is important to me. I too had asked Verizon to forward our calls to our cell phone but because we have AT&T for cell phone it was not an easy task. Our home phone lines do not have long distance and for some strange reason when we had long distance callers calling us they were getting a message that they needed to input a pin number into the phone...this shouldn't happen unless we try to dial a long distance number from our phones. I had AT&T in 3 other states and they were a little better but not much. I wanted to have my bills debit from my checking account and bundled...well that took 6 months to set up over the phone and it took several phone calls each several hours long. ( I have no clue why but each person I spoke with was slower and less bright than the person before them.) Then when I went to disconnect the service they disconnected the service a week early and left me without service and a way to reach anyone. Now here in NJ we have Cablevision for our cable TV and I am not impressed with them either. I know they offer internet phone service but I don't want that because of the emergency issues. I have an HDTV and Mom has a regular TV...both have had reception issues and it takes forever for them to get fixed. Cable TV is non customer service oriented and I have threatened to leave them several times for outages due to faulty equipment. I have yet to go 1 week in the last year that I haven't experienced at least a few hours of no service. I don't think there is any green grass in either the phone, cable TV or internet market.

Someone said it earlier but I think it needs to be said again, your son is displaying a level of maturity well beyond his years! I am not sure at his age I or any of my friends would have reacted the way he did. Heck I am not sure at my age now I would act with the maturity level he did. Bravo to your son. I know you are very proud and you should be.

Glad to hear you got your stuff back Steph. BTW I never got my birthday pie or a birthday hug either

I too have had some weird virus attacks lately. About a month ago I had a pop up on my computer that looked like the virus software that I run and it was telling me that I had to download updates. So being the dork that I am, I went and did that. As it was downloading my actual software detected a virus and after a few hours of tinkering with my system and downloading other virus protection software I was able to eliminate the virus. Then a few days ago I had another instance of attack and I got rid of the virus thanks to Malwarebytes in safe mode. I don't even go to weird sites or unknown websites anymore so I'm not sure where I got the virus from. What an annoyance. I support Malwarebytes and Superantispyware plus AVG on my system. You would think my system would be unhackable with all the extra protection I've built into it over the years. I'm not computer savvy so I go overboard on virus protection all the time.

I am sorry you had to remove your son from the school but honestly if they weren't looking out for him and the other students in this instance then you made the right choice. I have to agree with SpecialK too. Who knows what else they would sweep under the rug. This is a great lesson for your son on integrity. I wish you both well as you find a new parish and school for your son. They obviously were not dealing with the situation and by the response by the other parents I see a much larger issue. At least you may have woken up a few otherwise clueless parents who had no idea about what goes on at the school. A few years ago I was a special education advocate for the state of AR and you wouldn't believe the stuff they tried to get away with in hopes that the parents wouldn't fight or that the parents would be dumb enough to believe the lies and falsehoods they told. My best to your son in his new school next year.

I had a strange phone call today that sort of relates to all of this. I should start out by saying that I have 2 phone lines in my house. 1 is the main house line and the other is a business line that only I answer. Two days ago I got a call on my business line that was a recording telling me that time was running out for me to get a lower interest rate on my credit cards. Now, I found this funny because I only carry a debit/credit/ check card and it's from a particular bank. I wanted to get my name/number off this call list so since there was no option to get my number removed I hit the key to inquire about the "offer". A real person came on the line with a Middle Eastern accent ( just stating a fact not accusing anyone of anything). So when the guy asks if I am interested in lowering my credit card rates I play along and say that I have a couple of questions first....I ask how he got my telephone number (the telephone lines are not in my name for the house I live in). He said he got it from my bank who wants me to have this "great" offer. Now keep in mind he's never used my name once so I had a red flag. Then I asked him which credit card he was calling about and he said my bank visa. ( again I have no credit cards) I asked him what company he was calling from and he said he didn't have to tell me that at all.(wrong) I then asked him to please give me the companies mailing address as I wanted to file a complaint with them and ask to be taken off their calling list in writing as required by law. He said he didn't have to give me the information (wrong again). I asked him if he could provide me with the credit card account number he was talking about and he said he didn't have to share that information with me. I told him then that I didn't have any credit cards and so I have no idea what credit card accounts he was referring. He told me he was going to charge my credit card $700 for wasting his time as a penalty.( Ummm dumb a** you don't have my credit card number so how are you going to charge me?) Be careful out there folks. I have another family friend who had her identity stolen and someone filed a tax return using her information. When she went to file her actual tax return it would not go through. She's currently having the matter investigated by the FBI and IRS. She now has to wait until they investigate and she proves her identity so that she can get the refund she's entitled to. I too had my identity stolen a while back and someone used a credit card I had and charged $5000 worth of stereo equipment to it. It was my bank ATM card and luckily my bank ( not Bank of America) was really good and got the investigation and charges dropped. I got my money back within a week. People are desperate these days and will do anything for money.

Sweet. Next time I need to pack for a trip I'm going to call you...well done!

Happy birthday guys! Hope you all have a great day today and a wonderful year ahead filled with much joy.

Happy Birthday Ray Ray, maybe now you'll get that pie everyone gets promised when they join here...I'm still waiting on my pie and my birthday was 2 weeks ago LMAO!!!!!

Wojo, I think I've told you about a similar experience I had where I had to have coursework for over 30 training courses translated into Spanish for our Spanish speaking client once. I had someone working with me who was born and raised in Puerto Rico who did all the translations. Luckily for me I had the translations completed in time to have them sent to the client to verify that my grammar was correct on all of the slides and course manuals. Unfortunately, we had many last minute corrections to make because despite my working with a native Puerto Rican he hadn't used his Spanish in years and made some gramatical errors. I would definitely heed the suggestions to contact your local community college and see if someone there can help you. Not sure what your time restrictions are on the project(Sorry been too busy and haven't checked into the forums lately). I think the best bet if you are under a time crunch is go to the local community college Spanish department and ask for their assistance. Perhaps you can even work with them to give one of their students some extra credit for translating your materials for you. (Incentive for them to help you out) Depending on what your time frame for needing this done is, I might be able to find a contact of mine who can lend a hand. Let me know if you need more help and I can reach out to some of my contacts and see if they're available to lend a hand.

I didn't know Dave Powell that well but I know a few officers on the force and in the community. My heart goes out to all of them during this difficult time. He was well loved in the community and will be missed.

I too get frustrated at some of the responses I get from people. I am not sure that I would advertise a position I was hiring for on Craigslist if I wanted to get credibility for my organization. Now I say that also understanding that budgets being what they are the more places you have a low/no cost to advertise. I did this with the consulting business I am working. I put up a Facebook page. So far it hasn't yeild the best results and some might say that Facebook might give the wrong corporate image to potential clients. Honestly, I did it because it's free and it didn't take me that much time to put up to get some advertising and get my name out there. I agree with Maks that this candidate did not sell himself when asking for an internship. He just said why he wanted the internship but not what he could bring to the organization. As someone that repeatedly has to sell myself and my skills I always stress that in meetings when I am looking for a job, my skills and how they could benefit the organization I am trying to work with. Companies don't care what the applicant is going to get out of an internship/job they want a ROI for their money or time spent with the applicant. For a kid with 2 degrees I would expect much more honestly. In this type of market anyone coming out of college needs to be realistic. I have over 10 years experience in my industry and have many accomplishments but there are people out there willing to take a pay cut for a more secure position with qualifications far greater than mine so I can't go into something thinking I am all high and mighty. I have to show what I can bring to the organization and how that's going to increase their business and benefit their company. You did this kid a favor Maks. He needs to learn humility and to stop thinking he's entitled to something just because he has a degree. If I were this kid, and yes I have sent out misguided letters like he did in my past, I would definitely get back in touch with you and show you that I understood what you meant and that I am of value to your organization for the following factors....this kid needs to show concrete examples of how he can add value to your organization if he wants to get his foot in the door.

Sorry I missed the event. Perhaps next time I'll spend more time on here and see the notice. That was nice of you j0n to have everyone over.

This is a really horrific. Japan is well prepared for earthquakes and the US standards for earthquake preparedness actually came from visits to Japan and Mexico to see what they were doing because they had such great outcomes from their response to earthquakes. Out of that came the concept of having community members help themselves during events like this when transportation and getting around would be difficult. Now the CERT concept has spread throughout the US to handle a variety of disaster situations and to supplement the efforts of the first responder community. Earthquakes are no joke. When it comes to earthquakes and faultlines it's not a matter of if BUT when an earthquake will happen. A few years ago I was doing a presentation on the New Madrid Fault Line that goes through 13 states in the central part of the US and I was talking to a group of Home Healthcare Agencies about their preparedness as far as a business for this eventuality. I don't quite rememer what I had the "earthquake" in my scenerio measure out to but I had widespread distruction going on the entire time. So many of the folks in the audience were suprised to even find that they had an earthquake faultline right in their area. They thought that earthquakes only happened in California. Truth is that there are faultlines all over the US and world. We even have several faultlines in the Eastern part of the US. You have got to feel for the residents of Japan. It is going to take decades to completely recover from a situation like this if they are able to ever COMPLETELY recover. The nuclear issues are just going to add to the situation and make recovery that much more difficult. Look how long it took to recover from the San Fransisco earthquake back in the 80's. This was far more damaging to Japan that that earthquake was in the US. These events are not just going to play a role on Japan but the entire world too. Many products we in the US depend on Japan for are not going to be made until they can rebuild their infrastructure back to what it was and who knows how long that's going to take. Now we in the US are going to have to lend them resources and I am sure they are going to call in some of the financial backing that they have given to us over the years to assist in their current recovery. Events like these could not have come at a worse time for our economy. I wish all the responders and relief workers well as they do their best to help the people of Japan start the recovery process from these devestating events. I was lucky that everyone I know in the area was not in the directly impacted area of Japan. As many of you have shared, the stories I have heard as first accounts of the events that are horrifying. I cannot imagine living through something like this. I have seen some even direct pictures, video and reports from friends in the area that are even worse than what has been post in this thread so far.

I hope everyone stays safe and heeds the warnings early to evacuate areas that are prone to flooding. When the waters rise it's no time to be a hero and try to brave out the weather. Like I tell everyone I deal with that's ever been impacted by a disaster. You can replace material things. You can't replace YOU.

hopper I completely understand. NJ likes to pass warm and fuzzy legislation to protect us from societal ills. They are doing it for us after all. In another thread on here it was mentioned how small NJ's gun owner population is and how many of those gun owners are interested enough to get involved in the CCW debate. Those two things right there is what makes it so hard to ever have hope in NJ to CCW.

Unfortunately I live in one of the states that's going to be considered one of the "crazy" states and the people who run the state seem to be ok with that. Nothing like trying to improve the state's image.

I was watching a discussion on this issue very early this morning since I couldn't sleep. Some people said they even would believe this to encourage more gun ownership so people could get on the list thus potentially reducing the likelihood that their house would be robbed. To me this is a serious invasion of privacy. The general public does not need to know if I own a gun or I have a CCW. I would have to get a FID and a P2P if I wanted certain guns in NJ and that info is only kept by the police. There is no reason to release this information so that anti-gun nuts can start trouble. I can see it now...a list like this comes out and the anti-gun crowd starts protesting outside peoples homes, at the places of business, etc. Oh yeah that'd be great! I can see NJ TRYING to do this but I hope enough people would stand up against this. I would definitely get behind a lawsuit if this was to be enacted. Last time I checked we still had a right to privacy regarding certain things, especially as long as it was not causing harm to others.

Maks is right. I saw a program on Channel 12 a few weeks back where the Mayor of Atlantic City was at odds with the Governor over budgeting and how they set up certain entertainment districts in AC. Christie had to do this to protect revenue for the state that we get from gaming...especially since it's been down so much. I could see this coming a mile away. As someone that likes to play online poker I guess I'll just be restricted to the free sites from now on,or better yet when I get the funds together I'll head to AC and support our economy.

Congrats Wojo...now if he wins do you split the prize money? Need an agent to negotiate your contract???