Should I feel Bad?

The other day I saw what appeared to be a homeless man leaving the parking lot of the local grocery store. He caught my attention because he was pushing an empty shopping cart away from the store. At first I thought, "that man is stealing a shopping cart." Now this begs the question, should I feel bad that my first thought was his thieving and not his personal circumstances? Those shopping carts are around $150. While that isn't an exorbitant amount of money for this particular grocer, it is still wrong to steal right? I fought back the urge to roll my window down and chastise him for stealing, but that made me think.

Am I guilty of stealing a shopping cart since I saw such a seemingly innocuous act and failed to act upon it. At that point I know the grocery store's managers could have done nothing other than call the cops. Surely it isn't worth the police's time to take down a cart theft report. In hind sight I suppose the grocer could have at least known about the incident and called to order a replacement cart.

I regaled a friend of mine with this tale and they thought he might have just borrowed the shopping cart to transfer his belongings. This really got me thinking. Surely that would be a lot of walking. In my scenario the homeless man is borrowing the cart and thus would have to return it to the grocery store. What if he was moving his belongings to a further away location? Where did he leave his belongings in the first place to make the journey to find a cart? Why if there was a safe place to leave his belongings does he need to leave?

At this point I concocted the crazy map in my mind.

I imagined this guy moving his belongings from a bridge and wondered which path would he take to get to the new place. Would he take the most direct path through people's yards? Would He travel along the main highway or take some less traveled back roads for as long as possible? Then he would have to bring the cart all the way back to the grocery store.

Why is Joe Homeless moving? Does he know something about the end times that I don't? These thoughts kept spiraling in my head until I just decided he stole it.

Hopefully this doesn't make me a bad person, but that guy stole something and shame on him.

Blogging Tips I Should Follow part Deux

The other day I was reading this awesome blog that I should have found eons ago. I suggest you go and read it.

Now to the topic at hand. A day farther ago then "the other day" I mentioned above I read a blog about tips for starting a blog. Technically I have already started a blog, but seeing that no one reads it I thought, "there might be some good tips in there." One of the bloggers said that the trick to starting a blog is don't start one. There were multiple bloggers collaborating on this effort and only one blogger gave the advice to not blog, but I think they were right. (Is that easy to follow?) I have found that it is not easy to blog about interesting things in my life because: "A" nothing interesting happens to me, or "B" I don't recognize those interesting things in the moment. I am inclined to believe both of those options. Okay, it's probably the mysterious third option "C" in which I am to lazy to sit down and write when I could just as easily nap. So this is why nothing has been posted in over a month. To fair it felt like just a few days to me.

Quick disclaimer: The blog isn't there anymore so maybe I shouldn't take their advice.

Beer Commercials

I think most people have heard one of the Budweiser Real Men of Genius ads that involve two guys quasi-singing a salute to "geniuses." Once such genius would be the guy who invented a cooler with wheels. Another genius is the Tee-shirt launcher inventor. They are generally funny and I suggest you go listen to them. Fair warning the content of those are meant to be ironic or sarcastic. Also I suggest the Silent Killer Gas Passer.

Miller Lite has recently released a series of ads that aren't nearly as good but still they are catchy. My favorite is Love vs Like. Warning that link takes you right to the Miller Lite website.

I am not suggesting you should or shouldn't drink beer. I think these companies have made good decisions when hiring and ad agency.

Blogging Tips I Should Follow

Last night I was eating dinner with my wife and we were talking about her work. She mentioned something and it got me thinking about what a great blog entry that would make. Sadly I can't remember what my great idea was to save my life. Literally, if some one put a gun to my head they would have to shoot me because I can't figure out what I thought of in that moment. So my blogging tip for the day: Write down any good ideas you have for a blog entry. Of course at the time I didn't have a pen or paper so I am not sure how I would written it down. Of course while writing the previous sentence I realized I have a notepad feature on my phone so I really have no excuse. Does anyone have any tips for creating an awesome blog?

Myspace...To whom I bid farewell

I just cancelled my account with Myspace. I can't say that I am sad to see it go, mostly because I haven't seen it in over a year. Thanks for all the good times...you know all those men and women emailing me to look at their other profiles on websites that didn't have nudity restrictions. Yeah I miss that...not. Facebook is getting there though so I am looking for the next big social networking site. I am thinking www.callyourfriendsandmeetthemforsocialouttings.com should be good enough.

Myspace Blog 2

7-18-08 posting from Myspace

This is just a random blog about my thoughts.

I listen to the radio almost all day long while I am at work. Lately there is a radio commercial that has been cracking me up every time I hear it. I understand that probably no one else will find this funny. The sonic commercials are becoming well known for their two guys or guy and girl in a car routine discussing the newest product. The radio commercials introduce an extra character. This extra character advertises specifically to the couple in the car, either two guys or guy/girl. In all the radio commercials the special advertising character is always a stereotypical something.

Now that you have been set up, in the latest sonic radio AD the guy/girl combo are enjoying the new sausage biscuit dippers, when a stereotypical TV salesperson starts in with "hello folks, this is Jeff Frank Steve Stuart here to tell you about the amazing new Sonic Sausage Biscuit Dippers." The guy in the commercial says something like, "oh Sonic must have hired a stereotypical TV salesperson," when the girl interjects, "hush I trying to hear what Jeff Frank Steve Stuart has to say." This is the funniest part. First, that the stereotypical TV salesperson has only first names for all FOUR parts of his name, and secondly the female character is mesmerized by the salesperson and has instantaneously remembered the four first nondescript names named salesman. This is hilarious to me.

The next commercial that has been on my mind is a commercial issued by the Catholic Coalition of Bishops or something like that. The commercial emphasizes marriage and what it takes to make it last. The commercial begins with "What have you done for your marriage today?" It is followed by real testimonies of individuals and what they do for their spouse. They range from took the kids out so the wife could have a day to herself to "wow, I have no idea what I've done for my marriage." Because it is supposedly real audio from street interviews I am constantly amazed by the tone the voice carries. The ones that haven't done anything for their marriage often sound like they just realized how stupid they've been for not doing anything. On the other side, those that have done something for their spouse always sound hopeful for years to come or confident in their marriage.

When I am listening to this commercial, I always am reminded that something like 50% of first marriages end in divorce and 60% of second marriages for one spouse end in divorce, and still again 77% of third marriages end in divorce. With these statistics, I wonder how many of those people on the commercial will be divorced. However, while I am not doctrinally aligned with the Catholics I am glad that there are large campaigns fighting against divorce, by emphasizing that marriages take work and intentional acts of love to make them work.

Myspace Blog Entries... From the past.

7-21-08 Posting from Myspace

So, earlier I posted a blog about two commercials, and this blog will continue my commentary on commercials.

There is a new radio commercial by FORD. The commercial starts out in this booming voice that declares, "BE AMERICAN!!! BUY AMERICAN!!!" I am completely offended by this statement. Maybe I am just over reacting and maybe this means I am not American, but I don't like the Ford Company calling me un-American because I choose to drive a Toyota. Now, I must clarify that I drive a Pontiac which is an "American Made" car. I previously owned a PT Cruiser and a Ford Taurus. Chrysler was an American company that sold to a German Company that has relinquished the majority share of ownership to a private American Company. So, I drive American made cars but the part of this that really bothers me is FORD IS TELLING ME I AM UNAMERICAN FOR NOT BUYING FORD, GM, etc.

Get this. On July 01, 2008 Cars.com released an index of the top ten cars that are made with American made products, products bought in America, manufactured in America, sales, etc. Ford only has two cars on the Top Ten List of cars that are "American made." Now, I will be fair and say the Ford F-150 is the number one American made car, but it still is not completely composed of American made parts. The F-150 is only 80% American made products.

I guess what I am saying is, can Ford really claim that it is un-American to buy a Toyota Tundra that is 75% American made content when many of the Fords out there have less than 75% American products.