This Wednesday marks a special occasion here at the ol’ homestead, as this marks the day that ATE headquaters is moving to a bigger and better office. (and by office I mean that my wife and I just bought a new house and we move in today.) Since that means that me and the rest of the crew will be busy moving boxes and what not, I’m handing over today’s WW duties to the real brains of this outfit – blueyeddanger.

So the naNye says that it’s my turn to come up with a WW, therefore I chose this song that reminds me of my adolesence.

By way of wikipedia:

Cynthia Ann Stephanie “Cyndi” Lauper (born June 22, 1953) is an American Grammy Award- winning singer, MTV VMA-winning video and Emmy Award-winning film, television and theatre actress. She became a household name in the mid-eighties with the release of the album, She’s So Unusual and became the first artist in history to have four top ten singles released from one album. Cyndi has released 11 albums, over 40 singles, and has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. She continues to tour the world in support of human rights.

I remember sitting alone in the dark in my room listening to this song, over and over again all throughout my teenage years.

Enjoy.

“If you’re lost you can look and you will find me, time after time. If you fall I will catch you, I’ll be waiting time after time&”

Cyndi’s Myspace page

Today’s blog come by way of Pippi

She writes: We are growing serious, and, let me tell you, that’s the very next step to being dull. – Joseph Addison, The Drummer They would not be smart enough to pour piss out of their boots, if the instructions were written on the sole. – Garrison Keillor If it is illegal to dump toxic waste in your neighborhood playground, pour used motor oil in storm drains and stare at the mayor of Paris, it should also be illegal to forward spam email. This mornng in my email inbox there were so many forwarded email hoaxes that I had to close my email program, take a deep breath and take a walk around the block before I could respond to any of them. It wasn’t just the sheer volume of the emails promising a new screensaver or warning me about a computer virus from something as inoccuous as logging in to my email, it was that people are actually stupid enough to still believe such amazing bullshit. Some goodies from my Inbox: * My cousin sent me an email warning me about MySpace and viruses from pre-made layouts. Apparently she has a virus on her computer that could “only have come from MySpace” as does everyone she knows who has a layout on their MySpace page. Everyone but me, that is. Probably because I am the only person who is smart enough to never open any attachments she sends me. She thinks it is cute to send people a file that someone else forwarded to her that will, for example, open the DVD drive on your computer. The problem isn’t MySpace, pre-made layouts or the evils of the internet. The problem is that she opens every attachment that is sent to her, forwards everything, re-enters her PayPal information and doesn’t have a firewall or anti-virus software on her computer. She’s a fucking moron. * Speaking of fucking morons, let’s talk about an email I received from a college friend who logged on to her computer, opened her browser history to find a page she looked at the previous day and found, along with the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe, that someone had been browsing porn sites. Since her kids are both under 5 and not very internet savvy and she doesn’t look at porn, it had to be her husband. Her husband told her that he turned the computer on and porn just started popping up on the screen. Her husband, who is an alcoholic and has been going to therapy because he is a sex addict and was having affairs, swore that he would NEVER look at porn in their home. Because it easier to believe that the computer just dialed up her ISP, opened Firefox and started hitting porn sites than to believe that her husband, who went through a record amount of Kleenex during her last pregnancy and worked his way through her friends when the entire New Orleans region ran out of Kleenex, was surfing circuspenis.com. Apparenly the man who couldn’t pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the sole is smart enough to use an anti-virus software to get rid of the problem though. I kind of wonder now how she graduated in the top 10% of our graduating clas if she really believes that her husband wouldn’t surf porn because he started going to church. Particularly since his last affair was with the church organist. * Or the woman who swears she knows someone who knows someone who knows people whose son was killed at Virginia Tech. Apparently the hapless couple was backing out of their driveway, so intent upon getting to see their son that they didn’t notice their 8 year old daughter was behind the car. They killed her and thus lost two children on the same day. Funny though… The same story circulated after 9/11, after Columbine and after 100 other tragedies. At any rate, she forwarded the email message pleading for prayers for John and Betsey Morgan of Albany, New York to everyone in her email address book. And didn’t much appreciate it when I ‘replied-all’ with the link to Snopes. * A forwarded email from someone, concerned about my health and my seeming inability to avoid getting whacked with the cancer stick, with information from John Hopkins on how to avoid getting cancer and why I shouldn’t have the chemo after all because, according to this email at least, chemotherapy causes cancer, too. Well, great, but the name of the hospital is JOHNS Hopkins and I sincerely doubt that a researcher there wants to share cancer secrets for free when they could instead turn a tidy profit. And by the way… I don’t have cancer. I’m also not pregnant, so I don’t really care to hear about a problem with Enfamil or how someone’s child died from drinking the fluid from a Swiffer WetJet. Tiger Woods’s new yacht, a free website that lets you track where a cell phone is if you lose it, entering your PIN number backwards will help you if you are mugged, commencement speeches where Kurt Vonnegut tells graduating students to wear sunscreen…. The internet is awash in the stupidity that can only be found when people who are otherwise savvy and intelligent fall for bullshit because it makes for good email. And unfortunately most of those people seem to be people I know. Someone told me that I should be grateful that someone was thinking of me enough to forward an email they got that they thought I would like. I say to hell with that. It isn’t thinking of me, it is polluting my inbox and from now on I am going to reply-all to every single email with the link to Snopes. I’d rather be thought a bitch than have people think I am so stupid I really believe that the Dalai Lama created a personality test.

Ok people, I think it’s time for the ladies on the staff to get back into the game that is F3, so this week I’m handing things over to blueyeddanger.

Taye Diggs – Actor

My name may not be Stella, but if anybody can get my grove back it’s this fine specimen of BMH (Black Male Hotness).

“I don’t where that car is going, but I’d slap your momma if he’d put his key in my ignition.”

“surprisingly funny, moving, and heart-warming; you will not be disappointed.”

When most of us over the age of 30 were growing up our parents taught us to say please and thank you. It was understood that we should always respect our elders and be polite. Remember the old saying “if you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all”?

Sure these all add up to nice manners but how many of our parents actually taught us gratitude? How many parents actually say to their children “be grateful” or how many ever teach them to be truly thankful for each and every thing they have? I cannot speak for other parents but I have tried to teach my child gratitude. In some cases I have succeeded and in others I have failed.

My son like most other teenagers is mostly self absorbed, self centered and selfish but there is another side of him that I am truly proud of and humbled by. When we are out driving and he sees a homeless person he always asks me for money to give to them. If I don’t have any cash he always asks if we have any food in the car. Whenever I go through his closet to take out all the clothes he has outgrown he demands we give them to homeless or needy children.

Sometime ago, my husband Ray noticed some homeless people begging for money and followed them into the woods to see where they lived. When he found their camp no one was around but he decided to go to the grocery store, buy some items and take them back anyway. When he first went into the woods he told me and Isaac to stay in the car because he was unsure of what he would find; but on the second trip he took Isaac with him and it was by far one of the best lessons in gratitude I could hope to teach him. When I look at my husband and son together I am constantly reminded to be grateful. My husband Ray is my second husband and our son Isaac’s step father but except for the fact that Isaac is white and Ray is black you would never know they didn’t share DNA. While they can butt heads like any father and son they truly love each other and it is awesome to see their love and respect for each other grow.

I have said all that to say this….what has happened to good old fashioned GRATITUDE? Recently I have begun to notice several people in the 16 to 25 year old range that seem to lack any concept of gratitude. At work there is one person in particular that acts as if gratitude is a four letter word. I have to tell you this drives me batty. She goes around acting as if her peers, boss, company, college and the world at large owe her something. The idea that she may actually have to put forth effort, work her way up through the ranks or be granted raises and promotions based on merit seems foreign to her. I wish I could say that this was the only example but there are plenty of others that I encounter in my daily life and it just makes me mad.

Even my own son sometimes acts as if life should just be handed to him. I realized about 7 years ago that my ex husband and I had managed to spoil our son Isaac by always buying him little trinkets, taking him out to eat to often and not really making him work for anything. I knew I was in trouble when we were in Toy’s R Us and Isaac had a $20.00 toy in his hand that he had been wanting for a while and instead of being happy about it he pitched an absolute knock down, drag out, falling on floor kicking and screaming hissy fit. All that, because I wouldn’t buy him a $.50 piece of candy at the check out line. His father and I had recently divorced and money was tight. I knew then and there I had failed my child and vowed to do better. Since then I constantly talk to Isaac about gratitude and do my best to teach it to him. Even with that he still acts as if he is entitled to things sometimes and it really upsets me.

When I see young people from what most mental health professionals have labeled and the “Generation of Entitlement” I am at the same time horrified and pissed off. How did their parents not pick up on the fact that their kids were in trouble? How did they get to the point where it was ok to slack off at work because you don’t feel like your company is promoting you fast enough? Never mind the fact that you suck at your job, give everyone attitude and just can’t be bothered to show up on time. That can’t possibly be related to the fact that you can’t break out of that entry level position!?!

After hearing the term “Generation of Entitlement” for the first time I started doing some research online and came across a blog by a twenty-something guy who, in true entitlement generation fashion blamed his sense of entitlement on his parents. It was his parents, according to him, that promised him that if he stayed in school, went to college and got good grades he would be ensured a comfortable position when he graduated. It was his parent’s fault that he acted like the world owed him something. When I first read his blog my blood was boiling. How dare he blame his parents I thought? But as I have thought about it for the past few weeks I realized that in a way he is correct. While it is certainly important to incentivize our children to do well in school and get a good education so their hopes for the future are brighter, I believe it is also incumbent upon parents to prepare their children for the realities of adult life.

Why do some parents see nothing wrong with teaching their children how to clean up after themselves but never even think about teaching their children about minimum wage, layoffs and hard work? I have always felt a deep sense of responsibility to teach Isaac all the skills he might need to be ready for the world after high school. He is 13 and he can clean the entire house by himself. He is a better cook than Ray and he is not afraid to get his hands dirty. He knows that nothing in life is guaranteed and that if he wants to have a nice life, large savings account and large family he is going to have to show up for work and do his job even if his boss is a jerk.

So many parents these days don’t seem to want to teach their children about the realities of adult life and then wonder why their kids never leave the house. They seem afraid of teaching their kids any street smarts for fear that they will freak out or that they are not old enough to understand. I say to all parents everywhere that if you fail to teach your kid about the reality of life using chores, hard work and lessons in gratitude you will truly have failed your children. As a wise man I know once said…it is not your job to prepare the world for your children but rather your job to prepare your children for the world!

You know that the world has been turned totally upside down, when there is war in Iraq, children starving all around the world, an AIDS epidemic in Africa, and a 16 year old, spoiled rotten bitch won’t take £2million to make a movie. WTF is wrong with her parents and all the parents of all the children like her.

Hit the link.

Entitlement Generation Strikes Again: Emma Watson

When Italian artist Guido Daniele was hired by an advertising agency to create body painting of animals, he loved the idea.

“I researched each animal in depth to see how I could transfer it to a hand, and then set about bringing it to life.” The hardest part of his job is watching his creations disappear down the drain after they’re photographed. “I’m getting used to it,” Daniele shrugs. “At least I get to start each day with a fresh canvas.” Guido Daniele lives and works in Milan.

“The Best Sex Scene ever seen on the Silver Screen.“