Silence is golden..

You know, this is day three, and so far there's been absolutely NO response from the said perpetrators to my challenge.

Oh, they're willing to run off and hound someone else's blog, but to come right out and face the music just isn't something that they're willing to do.

No.

Like I said before: These people are nothing but internet bullies.

You know what the main characteristic of a bully is?

They're cowards.

Each and every bully that I faced down tended to fold when serious opposition came their way. All of the posturing, the bluster, the fanfare, whatever their "game" was to intimidate others just blew away when someone was willing to stand up to their little game.

Same goes here.

I stand up, I issue a challenge, and look what happens!

Two no-shows from the folks that I called out.

Am I surprised?

Not really.

Does this mean I'll stop?

Nah.

I made a promise to them that I'd keep up my actions as long as they kept up theirs.

I'm still seeing their veiled disrespect and harassment going on at other blogging sites, so I'm not about to cut off my postings.

They're not changing their tunes, they're just hoping that I'll go away, and that someone else will occupy my time. That maybe I'll forget about them, and they'll be able to keep on playing Blog-God here.

Guess what??

Not gonna happen.

I've admitted before that I'm an ass. I really am. I have firm beliefs, and I don't give them up for anything.

Well, this is one of my beliefs.

I'm here to put a stop to what I've seen. If that means that I've got to enter a blog, and write nasty shit for everyone to see, and make folks think otherwise about reading a blog, then so be it.

If that means that I need to go and belittle some writer just because I don't agree with their standpoint.. I'm game.

I think I'll treat these two just like I have to deal with my ADHD son. Actions deserve a consequence.

They've done plenty of actions, and basically recieved no consequences for them.

Well, prepare to reap the whirlwind, because I'm still not through with you two just yet!

Oxymoron warning!!

Yeah.

In case you're confused, I'll explain.

An OXYMORON is a contradiction in terms.

Jumbo Shrimp.

Military Intelligence.

You get the picture..

Yeah. Well this week I started a feud with a couple of lumps of lard on the blog-o-sphere over some (percieved) injustice.

You know what's funny? These same people advocate an open and free internet, and then try to tell others what they should and shouldn't say!

Are you getting the irony here?

They're willing to pass judgement on others, point out faults and flaws, and then expect everyone to assume that they have none themselves.

I'm sorry, did you mean to tell me that you're Jesus Christ returned in the flesh??

You're the next Buddha, and I completely missed that fact?

No, wait. That was the Virgin Mary talking, and I should pay better attention next time.

What. The fuck. Ever.

These folks are just as flawed as the next person. They don't have cause or grounds to be able to do or say these things, and then expect someone NOT to show them the error of their ways.

Beacuse of this, I'll leave any comment open. I'll leave posts unaltered.

However, I expect the same from them.

Oh, wait.

One of them DOESN'T blog.

This is the one who goes to read other folks thoughts, feelings, and life stories, and then proceeds to pass judgement on them.

Yeah. Go find another fence to gossip at.

Unless you're unable to get yourself out of the house.

Then I suggest you look into the Jaws of Life in order to get out and get some liposuction done.

Anyway, I'm done here.

Anyone want to see what happens next?

Read on.

Freedom of Speech

You know, there are times where I really wonder if some folks can honestly think of themselves as people when they can take a freedom for granted, and then use that same freedom to try to belittle others..

The Freedom of Speech gives us the right to say what we like, where we like, when we like.

If you don't like it, turn the other way.

This is especially nice in the blogging world, because there's that nifty little "x" mark in the upper right corner that you can click on, and the offending material just disappears..

It's called the miracle of technology.

Yet for some unknown reason, there are people out there who are small enough in their ideals, minds, and personalities that they feel the urge and need to lash out at those of us who are willing to write about personal life details.

These people are just "internet bullies" who try to look for a fight, and then get upset when their daily life balance is skewed by something they don't like to read.

Then, for reasons unknown, these same folks try to "convince" (read force) the readers and the writer that they are the only ones with the correct solution, and browbeat you into submission.

I hate bullies.

Hell, I hate folks who even admire and stick up for said bullies.

I'm not a nice person when someone decides to be disrespectful to me. I also tend to get very abrasive when folks start disrespecting someone that I actually admire and respect.

For this, I've now gained the "admiration" of two bloggers.

Bring it.

Show the world just how petty and minor you can be.

I'll be here waiting for your comments, and you can bet that it won't bother me in the least to get as dirty as I want to be.

ARRRRGH!

Have you ever had "one of those days" that actually seems to go on for the entire work week?

Yeah. I'm there.

This week has been jammed to the gills with stress, bitching, tempers flying, and more stupid crap than most of the rest of this last year combined..

Thank GOD it's Friday, and I can at least look forward to two days of not having to deal with it for a while!

You know, there are days when I look forward to this job. The challenge. The mystery. The fun of digging into a problem and being able to fit it and look like the miracle worker that I truly am.

Yet there are times when I come in with this mentality only to revert to a hunched grumpy troll at the drop of an attitude once the time clock is punched.

The worst part is that there are only a couple of people who are able to do this to me. The biggest problem is that they are two people that I have to interact with on a nearly daily basis.

Yeah. These two.. (I'll call them Twit 1 and Twit 2 in homage to Dr. Seuss) are the epitome of selfishness and ignorance all wrapped up in a giant bundle of attitude. You show up for work, and one of these two will somehow try to find a way to bring you down into their depressing pissy world, and not let you out.

Twit 1 has been moved to the night shift for a while, so I've had a nice reprive from his arrogance. However, Twit 2 seems to take this as a challenge, and has since stepped up his assinine ways.

Today was NO exception.

Let's just say that I'm glad I was able to finally lock myself away in my office, and rant and rave at the walls for a while... I really don't need to lose my job over someone like this, and keeping focused on the job at hand really doesn't help when you've got someone like that trying to make your life a living hell.

Hope you all have a great weekend, and I'll shout out at you another day.

Ciao!

Quirks..

Do you ever wonder where we get some of our quirks?

You know..

I've got a few that really tend to annoy the wife.

Here's one for example:

I HATE doing laundry. I don't know why. I mean, it's easy. You put the sorted clothes into the machine, the machine does the work, and you toss said batch into the dryer, then fold and put away.

Easy, peasy.

But I honestly HATE to do it.

However, when I do this most heinous of chores, I tend to go overboard.

My wife just likes to have colors and whites sorted. That's it. Colors with colors, and whites with whites. Nothing more.

Me? Oh no..

Colors go with colors, unless they're jeans, which have their own pile, and towels which have another. Oh, not to mention delicates, and I tend to keep underwear in a pile all by itself.

So I don't just have TWO piles of laundry.. No, I usually have 5-6 piles compared to the two that the wife has.

Why do I do this? What caused me to hate this job, but be obsessively anal-retentive about it?

I don't know. I can't seem to explain it. It's just me.

There are others... Trust me.

I mean, how many folks do you know who come home from work and can disappear into the bathroom for at least an hour?

My wife knows one.

Heck, he's done more reading there than all through his school and college years!

Why?

Dunno. But heck, it's me!

I'm going to sit back, and take it easy for a bit, but I'm going to open up a kind of Q&A session.

Email me questions you want to know about.. I don't care if they're serious or not, and I'll come up with some kind of answer for you.

It may be serious, but don't positively count on it, ok?? I can't make a promise like that!

You can send all emails to jormengrund@hotmail.com, and I'll make sure to file them and answer them as I get time.

You have a great summertime, and I'll talk with you all later!

Long time, no post!!

Yeah, I'm writing.. Be amazed.

I've decided to come clean about some things in my past. Judge me how you will, but I've got to air things that have been bothering me lately. Some of you will think that I'm just writing to get responses from people. Others will assume that I'm dramatizing things. Others, that I'm just making this shit up to get readers.

None of that could be further from the truth.

I'm writing today about something in my past that is going to haunt me the rest of my life.

Let's set the stage for my story:

Back before I got married for the first time, I was on top of the world. I had a steady income. I was fresh out of military service, and nothing could stop me. The world was my candy shop, and I had a fist full of cash to spend.

I met my first wife, and we got married VERY young. She'd just graduated High School, and I was barely into my mid-20s. Then, my oldest son was born less than a year later. I was hardly prepared for married life, let alone the pressure and stress of being a parent. I lost jobs, mainly because I was overqualified for the positions I filled. I made managers nervous about the potential for me to take over their jobs, and because of this, I would get let go from jobs for menial reasons.

My wife decided she didn't want to go to college. She decided that she'd rather go to a business school, and get job training to go straight into a paying job right out of her classes. I begged borrowed and outright lied to family in order to get the cash to send her to Medical Assistant classes. While she went to school, I moonlighted at whatever job I could find. Labor positions, fast food, construction temp worker.. You name it, I worked it for at least six months. Then, she graduated, and our ship that was supposed to come in sank like a rock. The employer that agreed to hire her dropped her after two weeks because the doctor's daughter decided she wanted to work that summer, and my ex was the last employee hired.

Enter in more stress. Bills didn't get paid. Money was running tight. We got tossed out of apartments for failure to make rent and utilities. Even my in-laws and my own parents wouldn't take us in. We had hit rock bottom.

Then, a small ray of light.

The church we'd been attending announced our problem to a small bible study group one week. We prayed, and one younger couple offered us the chance of a lifetime. They had just married, and they each owned a house. They were willing to allow my wife and son and I to move into her old house, rent free, in exchange for work on the building. We jumped at the chance, and agreed with no hesitation. It wasn't in the nicest part of town, but at least it was a roof over our heads, and some measure of stability back.

At this time, my oldest son started school, and problems began. Teachers kept complaining to us that he couldn't stay on task. He was having issues with talking back to teachers, and not respecting authority. (My son! Who'd have thought, right??) So, I was able to scratch enough money together to get my son seen by a mental health specialist after my mother told me that he could be showing signs of ADD or ADHD.

Yeah. The dreaded parent-eater diagnosis. ADD.

The shrink agreed that he was definitely ADD, and needed to be put on medication in order to remedy his actions. Needing to have him behave and conform to his school standards, we agreed. Ritalin didn't work. He didn't have any kind of reaction at all to the medication. After a week, the doctor decided to put him on a different med. So we started a time-release drug called Concerta. That's when all hell broke loose.

He'd have manic episodes. I recall one time seeing him clutching a stuffed bear, crouched under our kitchen table screaming at shadows. He'd get angry, and lash out at anything close. Anger was ALWAYS under the surface, even when he seemed calm and happy.

Then, the fateful day happened.

One night, I was home getting the kids into bed. As my oldest finished brushing his teeth, he suddenly started yelling about how I wasn't going to force him to do anything, and he wasn't going to bed. I was tired, it had been a long day, and I wasn't about to be talked to by my son like this, so I picked him up, and bodily put him into bed. He proceeded to yell, scream, punch, and curse at me about how bad a father I was, how we needed to die, and we was going to kill us all that night. I grabbed him by the arms, laid him back, and told him to be quiet and go to sleep. He yanked himself out of my grasp, and screamed "Fuck you!" at me.

I saw red.

Then I did something that I've regretted now for over 10 years.

I reached back, intending to slap his mouth for the language he'd used. It was what my parents and grandparents had done when I was a child, I figured it was OK for me to use it as well.

He moved.

My hand didn't change direction, and I ended up hitting him just below his left eye. It wasn't a hard slap, but from an adult to a young child, it was like a punch from a prize-winning fighter.

He stopped screaming, and huddled in the corner of his bed, staring at me. I couldn't say a word, so I just left his room, shaking and afraid of what I'd done.

The next morning my son had a black eye. My actions had not only caused me pain from doing them, but had left their mark as if to tell me that not only was I a bad parent, but I was also an abusive one.

My son went to school, came home, did his chores and homework, and then went to a friend's house to play before dinner. While there playing, the mother of his friend asked my son how he got his black eye. My son answered simply:

"My dad hit me."

Those four words caused my world to end. The mother, instead of calling and talking to me called the police. I was arrested, and booked in jail for domestic assault. While driving there, I had one of the arresting officers tell me how bad of a parent I was, being able to hit a child who can't defend themself.

Since that day, I've regretted the decision I made to hit my son. Especially in anger.

Now, I know there are more constructive ways to deal with the yelling and screaming, and I can basically tune out the harsh words and nasty criticisms.

What I can't change are actions that can leave marks.

To attest to my diligence to be a better father, I can safely say that I now have full custody of my kids, and they honestly love living with me. I'm a changed man. But there is still a part of me that fears the beast I have inside of me that tells me that physical punishment isn't a bad thing, and needs to be used more often.

Maybe someday I'll come to terms with my spectre, but for now, I just try to keep it locked away safely inside where it can only harm me, and nobody else.

Love your kids.

They're your legacy in this world, and speak volumes about your love, your life, and your values.

My deepest apologies...

It occurs to me that I've been remiss, to you. My friends, my online readers, I sincerely apologize.

One of the things that I swore I'd do when I started this blog was that I would post, NO MATTER WHAT, and keep folks entertained.

However, I made that resolution to myself before things in my work and family life went haywire.

As such, I've been away FAR too long, and I've really missed the reading and comments from those of you who have been my faithful supporters.

I can't promise that I'll post often. Right now things are WAY too much in flux for me to be able to make that kind of promise.

But what I do promise is that when I get the time, you can be sure that I'll tickle these keyboard keys, and at least let you all know that I'm still here, and that the mind is still running overtime, ok?


Now, on to the real reason I'm posting:

Coming up next week, the wife and I are headed for Vegas for a few days.

Yup. Vegas. The adult playground. City of slot machines, booze, women (and men!) and gangsters..

The only real problem I can see in this trip is going to be how much time she and I actually spend together.

"How so?" you might ask. Well, here's the answer:

We're not going there alone. We're taking another couple-friend of ours along. My wife's best friend and her fiancee are coming along as well.

Don't get me wrong. I like these two. I just haven't found a happy medium for spending time with them and also spending time with my wife.

I mean, when my wife's friend is around, she tends to spend her time talking with her, gossiping with her, and watching reality TV shows. While this is going on, a remarkable change also comes over my wife, and she tends to envelop the views of her friend as well. That is when I become a lazy slob. One of those guys that is only good for going to work to help provide a bit of the paycheck, and doesn't do jack around the rest of the house.

Yeah. It blows.

Then, there's the husband. I like this guy. He actually reminds me of myself in my younger years. He's family oriented, and very personable. He loves video games.. Heck, he likes them even more than I do!

However, he's also still young enough that he wants to go out and raise hell each and every night. Me? I'm the old dog, and can't do that so much anymore. Heck, I can hardly drink to excess anymore!

Therein lies the problem:

I'm pretty sure that the wife and I will be spending some time together. However, is that time going to be painted with her nagging at me about things I should be doing, or things that I could get done when we get home, or is it actually going to be fun?

The time we spend apart is going to be interesting as well. Is he going to want to drag me off to various strip clubs? Am I going to be getting the 3rd degree from the wife about what we've done? How manageable is the wife going to be after spending a full day with her girlfriend?

Yeah, I know. Don't count the eggs until they've hatched.

Yet I'm torn.

I want to look forward to this vacation. I want to be excited about it.

But I can't also help but feel that somewhere along the line something's going to go badly, and the fallout is going to be horrendous.

Keep an eye out for me if you're in Vegas, and lay a bet down on the table! After all, it's my third trip there, and that's gotta mean something, doesn't it??

Have a great Father's Day weekend this coming week. I'll be spending it at the Blackjack tables!