Scumbag o' the Day

This is the type of stuff that makes me question the human race as a whole.

Both my wife and I were stunned, literally speechless, as we heard this news item yesterday. It’s not something that pops up every day, so the shock factor was there. Add to that the level of 'activity' and you are beyond reprehensible. It’s simply inhuman. I cannot fathom what could drive someone to this type of activity, what is going on in his head…nor do I really want to.

BUT…I can’t say how much I’d love to hear about the sheer and utter torture this guy gets after he finds himself in the big house. We all know (since the movies tell us this…and, that’s the definitive source, eh?) that molesters are the low of the low in prison. Killed someone? Meh…so what. But hurt a kid – A THREE MONTH OLD KID – well…I just don’t see this guy making it all that long. One first class ass-raping coming up! Does that make me a bad person for rejoicing in this ahole’s misery? Maybe…but if so, I’ll still sleep well knowing he’ll be getting only a portion of the hell he should be for what he (allegedly) has done.

B.

Posted by BalekFekete @ 10:34 am EDT | Permalink | 5 Comments

Choices choices...

So many good blog topics for this Monday morning…where to start...

Well, first off we hear that Hillary Clinton has officially announced she will be running for the presidency next year. Well, big surprise there. On top of that, she is already showing an overwhelming lead of over 25 points in preliminary polls for the Democratic nomination (per the NY Times). It very well may come down to a real chance of having a female in the oval office. With that said, can we get a bill passed that mandates a one-week per month switch of power to the highest ranking male so we don’t have a PMSing Hillary go and nuke some random country? Also…quite frankly…I don’t trust the would-be First Husband to pick out the china, do you? ;)

Then…some dipshit out in California has a bright idea to institute nanny government by introducing legislation that would make spanking illegal. That’s right…liberal Sally Lieber from Mountain View is proposing that anyone who would spank a child three years and under would be guilty of a misdemeanor, and subject to up to a year in jail and fines up to $1,000. Listen…I can agree that hitting isn’t really ever the best choice of action in parenting your children. However, with that said, my mother chased after me (and sometimes caught me) with a wooden spoon she used to whack our Great Dane with, and here I am…not out beating baby seals and planning to take over the worl…well, anyways. Rather than trying to use her seat in government to ram down her personal beliefs (which, as someone without children, is all based on theory only rather than personal experience) down on the public at large, why not spend the time and money forming means to better educate parents out there to her cause, and let them decide the best course of action? Mmmm? Gee, what a concept. <rolls eyes>

And finally, on a lighter note, over 2 years after moving in, I finally made good on re-working the family room – or at least start to. What the room most desperately needed was a fresh coat of paint, which went up this Saturday. Two people (big props to my ever-wonderful wife) and 12 hours, and lo and behold, two coats and a nice, classy look to the room. Add to that some new vertical blinds (as the windows opposite the 65” HDTV face east, making for some NASTY pre-noon glare) and it’s coming together. On top of all that, I found the site I’ll use to decorate those new virgin walls after taking down all the miscellanous crap that was adorning them since we moved in. So, with getting a general nod from the wife and accountant (mind you, I didn’t mention price ;) I ordered up this this bad boy...

Balek is a happy camper.

Posted by BalekFekete @ 9:07 am EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Guilty Pleasures

We all do it, and we all feel bad for doing it. We’re on our way to work, and see the flashing lights up ahead. Traffic slows, and we start cursing under our breaths. Then we start openly cussing out each and every person who is slowing down so they can get a 1.8 second glimpse at the accident that has now caused you to be late for work. You inch up slowly for the final half mile…and just as you reach the two cars sitting on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck…you do it too. We all love the trainwreck.

I don’t understand why we do it, but there must be some part of the human psyche that loves watching other people’s misery. That is the only thing that explains it. It goes beyond just sheer curiosity – because we know what we’re going to see. We’ve seen it before, it turns out to be nothing special, and we forget about it right after we pass it by. But some part of us just loves it. I can’t explain what it could be, nor could anyone else I’d wager.

That’s the ONLY reason why American Idol exists in my not-so-humble opinion. Ok, perhaps there’s a small segment of the population that doesn’t tune into these first several weeks of the show and is really intent on seeing those who have the talent and can make a living in the music industry. However, I represent the vast, VAST majority who could care less for those who could sing, but would rather laugh our collective asses off at those fools who think they can sing, believe they can sing, know they can sing and show up for these first auditions.

Every time I see a clip or hear it on the radio, I let out an audible “WTF”. How can some people – most of the people – be so disillusioned to believe they have a gift to sing well when to every other human ear it’s blatantly obvious they can’t carry a tune in a paper bag. I don’t think I can sing…I don’t believe I can sing…I KNOW I can’t. Acknowledging that isn’t such a hard thing to do for me. I don’t lose any sleep over it. What I can’t understand is how some people can’t figure that out, and need someone on a nationally broadcast television show to tell you it. I guess that’s a question that will never be answered well - but I don't need it answered. I'll sit back on my couch and laugh at the people as they make fools of themselves in front of millions. Even I - knowing full well how pathetic it is - can't turn away from it 100% of the time.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and a videoclip…well, more. The proof is in the puddin’.

B.

Posted by BalekFekete @ 9:29 am EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

Crime and Punishment

This blog is dedicated to all those parents out in 2o2p-land…

Have you ever had to dole down a punishment on your child that you truly wish you didn’t have to do? If not, I’ll let you in on a little secret – it truly sucks.

Background goes as such …

Last night I arrive home after a fairly benign day at the office to a problem with my 11 year old son. He was sent up the street three doors by my wife to fetch his younger sister and brother from a friends house in the neighborhood, and to walk them home since it was already near total darkness outside. Problem starts when he walks in the door solo, and just walks right pass my wife in the kitchen. Turns out he went over, told them to come home, but neglected to follow through with the second half of making sure they got home safely. The reason we’re asking him for these types of favors, and others, is at 11 years old, we want to start building a sense of responsibility and trust with him so we can start allowing him a greater sense of freedom in ways such as leaving him home alone while we drop one of the others off at sports, etc. Unfortunately, he didn’t cut the mustard this time.

Seems pretty standard fare eh? Well, that’s only the tip of the iceburg. Before dinner, I sat down with him on the couch he was pouting on (since he wasn’t taking well to being told he didn’t follow through on what his mother asked) and wanted to let him know why we were upset…for the reasons I just outlined. Well, he wouldn’t have any of it. Excuse after excuse after excuse started flowing from his mouth as to why it wasn’t his fault he left the other two to walk home alone, rather than just owning up to it, and learning from it. That’s where things started to go downhill in a hurry. In my minds eye, for him to learn from it, he needed to acknowledge his fault in the situation. Failing to do so just makes it likely to repeat. So I’m talking with him, and he’s getting more and more defensive, to the point where he starts saying some really stupid shit. So I get up, and tell him “when you’re ready to talk to me about this in real terms, we’ll continue this” – which got me a “fine…we won’t ever have that talk” response. Dad’s blood pressure then jumped 50 points. Straight to the room he goes crying his eyes out – right as dinner gets put on the table.

Five minutes pass and I can hear the crying stop, so I figure he’s ready to come down and eat so he can make his basketball practice 30 minutes down the road. So I go up and ask him to come down, to which I get a “I’m not eating dinner.”. Internally, my voice goes “Like Hell you’re not…”. See, we’ve had incidents before when he’s pulled that stunt, and we let him go to bed without eating. Problem is he’s then woken up the next day and played the “Ohhh…I’m feeling faint”, “I’m soooo dizzy” drama on us, so I have vowed never again. I tell him he’s going downstairs, and he will eat dinner because of those past incidents that I will never relive or force my wife to relive. He digs his heels in, and re-iterates that he’s not hungry, and isn’t going downstairs.

Dad’s blood pressure jumps another 50 points.

We have two basic ground rules in our house with our kids. #1 - They will never lie to us. I was a compulsive liar growing up, and I regret every one I ever told to my parents. I am willing to go to any length to ensure that my kids don’t feel the need to do that to us. And #2 – I expect our kids to respect my wife and myself. This is where I felt violated in his attempt to blatantly disobey me. When asked if he thinks he can actively disobey me, I get the standards “I don’t know…”. I let him know that he’s treading on very dangerous grounds, and is doing something against one of those two cardinal rules that he knows very, VERY well. Does he care? Nope.

Sooo…it comes now to another lesson of action and consequence. I tell him that if he decides to continue to disobey me and stay upstairs rather than go downstairs and eat dinner with the family, he looses his Xbox 360 Save Games. See – let me tell you about my eldest son a tad – he’s a gaming addict – even more so than his father (and that’s saying something). It’s to a point where both myself and my wife have said to eachother it’s a problem, but we haven’t been good enough parents to start putting in some regulations yet (YET – back to this in a few). So we have told him that, were he to ever blantately lie to us again (he’s done it in the past, and we’ve caught him cold), or openly disrespect us akin to what we see on those Supernanny TV shows – his save games are gone. Not just losing the privledge to play the 360 for X number of days – the saves are deleted. So, back to my ultimatum with him…I thought it would pay off.

I was wrong.

I sat stunned as he replied “I’m not hungry”. So I stand up from the bed I was sitting, and go downstairs. I crank up the volume on the sound system, and fire up the system making sure he can hear the start-up. Wait a minute or two, then go up and ask him to follow me down to the living room. There, sitting the the TV, is his gamer profile at the “Move/Delete” option. I tell him once more “This is your last chance – do you want to sit down and eat, or do you want to lose your profile and your save games?”

“I’m not hungry.”

So, I did it. And I felt physically ill when I was doing it. The story goes on for another hour and a half after that, as we sit down and get through to him finally. He’s as stubborn as both his parents, so it’s a feat to get through, but we finally did. We heard everything from “I’m never coming out of my room” to “I’ll never forgive you” and everything in between. But ultimately we got to a point where he understood (at least we hope) a bit more why we do what we do, and that it’s because we love him and want to make sure he’s a good person as he grows up and has his own family. We talk about how important the games have become to him, and that we’re worried. So we agreed to institute a “Pay For Play” type of system – where the kids will earn play time on the 360, or the computers, or the DSs by doing work around the house, getting good grades, or other signs of responsibility and/or caring for one another. I’ll keep ya’ updated on how that goes…

Anyhoo…long, long story – so sorry for that. But it feels good to write it down and have a second chance to see what we did last night as parents and know that – even though it hurt both my son and myself – it was the right thing to do. I lived through a time when gaming was more important than just about anything in my life – and it almost tore my family apart. I won’t ever have my kids (namely my two sons) let gaming affect them like it did me. That starts today.

B.

Posted by BalekFekete @ 9:20 am EDT | Permalink | 7 Comments

Scratch another stone...

Hi all...

I just wanted to toss up a quick update for those who caught the news in the site chat over the past few days.  Just got back from the lithotripsy (having a kidney stone broken up using sonic energy) and all went well from what I can tell.  Will be relaxing for the weekend recuperating, and hope to catch ya'll either on XBL over the next few days, or back in site chat come Monday.

Take it easy,

B.

Posted by BalekFekete @ 2:23 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments