I DO NOT LIKE THE COLOR GREEN.

Last year I did a cooking video called "How to peel an egg" and the number one comment on Youtube what about how much water I wasted rinsing the egg off for 10 seconds. Seriously! People complained that I wasted 10 seconds of running water to cool the egg off.

I can guarantee that the people who wrote those comment NEVER turn off their water when they soap up in the shower. I bet they ALWAYS water the grass when the sun is out and I am sure they NEVER call in a broken sprinkler on city property.

The only reason they are worried about wasting water is because it's all about going GREEN. It's a way of life for some people to complain about the environment and to just be bitter about the whole thing.

I like a lot of the ideas of recycling and going back to paper produces and repackaging products. I am totally for that. It saves money and helps the environment.

I don't like all the talk about how we are killing the earth, global warming, and everything else that has no proof. Sure the ice is melting away at the poles, but there is no proof that we are the cause.

I also can't stand two faced green people. Like the parents who drive their kids to school. Have you ever seen the line of cars just to drop kids off for school. When did we become chauffeurs. Some of these kids live blocks away. What a joke. Preach to me about clean air, but don't let Johhny walk a block to school. It's as bad as ordering a Diet Coke with a donut.

Here is a thought. Last year there were blizzards that had record low temperatures on the east cost of the USA. You didn't see people screaming global warming then. In fact, it's funny that you never hear talk about global warming in the winter.

Here is another thought. If we are causing the ice to melt away, then who was responsible for the ice melting after the first ice age? We weren't around to melt the earth that time. How do you explain that? ... Yeah. Thought so!

When it comes down to it, we can destroy the earth only if money is involved. If you don't believe me then as people why they didn't boycott the Beijing Olympics. A place that had to stop manufacturing pollution weeks before the Olympics so people who came to visit could breath. No one made a stand against that event.

That's because Americans like to pick and choose what's important to them. Americans only do the right thing when it's convenient.

So I propose we:
Stop with the color green on product in the store.
Stop with the word green on every magazine cover story.
Stop profiting from people's fears of what would happen if they don't go green.

As a matter of fact, I am changing the color right now. let's go Yellow.

Why?

Because it's my favorite color. :-)

8 MILLION DOLLARS TO CEO OF WAMU

I just heard from the AP news wire that Washington Mutual (WAMU) has a new CEO. They have told the new CEO that if he can keep WAMU alive to 2009, he will receive an $8,000,000 bonus.

I had to play back the AP Video three times to make sure I heard what I heard. Where do they have 8 million dollars to just give away. They are in dire straights and yet there still sees to be millions. How about applying that 8 million dollars to cover those bad loans.

It's amazing how all of the executives get theirs before companies go under. The only person who gets hurt by this is the average Joe taxpayer. We always foot the bill!

THANK YOU FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!

I don't know much about buying and selling homes, or the stock market, or banking, but I do know this.

It seems that this whole economic mess came from banks giving out bad loans to people who should not have received them. It's like anyone could get a loan and these loans had fluctuating interest rates. Greed was running rampant. Then the economy started getting bad and the interest rates went up so fast that people's house payments almost doubled. So the people bailed on their homes and their loans.

The SEC sat back, watched this happen and didn't put the stop to it. That is why John McCain is asking for the firing of the SEC chairman.

I didn't buy a house because I knew I couldn't affor one. I didn't get a loan that had interest rates that could go fluctuate because I know that's the worst type of loan to get. I didn't do anything wrong. All I did was run my two companies, raise my two kids and pay my taxes.

So why did I run to my local Washington Mutual yesterday and empty out all 4 of my bank accounts? Because our government is not doing their job. Because once again greed has blown up and the innocent is being hit with shrapnel. Because when Monday morning comes I don't want to be standing in line looking for my money.

Let me keep this short and sweet.

First Indybank went under and then Lehman Bros., Merrill Lynch, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and WAMU is close behind.

Now President Bush announced that the federal government is going to (bail out) absorb the Billions, maybe even a trillion dollars of bad loans.

Now what these means is that the entire United States (who is already broke and still can't stop giving other countries our money) is going to foot the bill. There is even rumor that our Federal taxes could double by next year.

Wow! $5 a gallon for gas this past summer and now this. Canada is looking sweeter everyday. So much for the land of the free. Nothing is free and the innocent have to always pay.

You know, if they raise our taxes to pay this mistake, those taxes will never come back down again. Gas prices came down, but no one lowered prices on their products. So why should the government be any different.

I am sorry that these companies didn't know how to run a business, but why should the innocent people suffer for their mistakes.

Things are going to get tougher that they already are. The only way to survive in the coming months is to tighten your belts and cut costs in your life. When you have money in the bank and your not living paycheck to paycheck, you have security and your live much happier.

So here is my advice on cutting costs and making things in your life better.


1. RELOCATE - this means either leave the state your in (like California) and move to a state where you can afford to buy a decent home for you and your family. A decent home is between 200k and 300k. Look in places like Boise, ID or Nashville, TN. Great towns with affordable housing and still all the amenities of the big city.


2. REVIEW ALL EXPENSES - Do you need HBO? Do you need gardening service? Do you need a house keeper? Do you need the fastest internet tier? Do you need the newspaper? Do you need satellite radio? You would be surprised how much frivolous spending you are doing.


3. STOP DRIVING - save on gas. don't go anywhere unless it's a have to. Do your errands on the way home from work so your not making an extra trip out. Stop driving 10 hours away on vacation. Vacation locally. You can even stay home and vacation. You'd be surprised how much you will save on hotel, airfare, and gas. Then you can spend all the money you saved right here in your own hometown and have a blast.


4. BECOME AN ENTREPRENEUR - The only true way to survive in this world is to work for yourself. Start your own company and work from home. I run two companies from my home. I save thousands of dollars on gas only. I also get to write of tons of household expenese since it's also my office. Read "Inc. and Grow Rich" and read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and read "The Success Principles". All of these books will tell you why you should be an entrepreneur.


5. STOP EATING OUT - you can cut your food bill in half if you just make a menu for the week and go shop for that menu. Stop paying $10 for a burger and fries at Red Robin. Stop adding a 20% tip on top of that. STOP PAYING $0.45 FOR AN EXTRA DRESSING. Not only will you save money, but you might loose a pound or two.

I hope the above suggestions help prepare you for the future.

THE FUNNIEST 6 SECONDS EVER

I hate cats. I still am laughing as I am typing this. Here is the funniest 6 seconds ever:

PIZZA HUT NASTY WINGS!

Last night I ordered Pizza Hut Garlic Parmesan wings. Here is what the ad looks like:



Pizza Hut was even kind enough to warn me about the intense flavor. That's nice. The above image is the boneless, but I chose to get the bone-in version. It's the cannibalism in me I guess.
Here is what they delivered to my door.



I never liked Pizza Hut, but for some insane reason my family keeps buying from them. Did you notice the shine on the chicken? That's from the puddle of grease that came with the chicken.


I will be taking these wings back today for a full refund. I will keep you posted

DO NOT GO ON A CARNIVAL CRUISE

My wife wanted to celebrate our 10th Wedding anniversary so she booked us on the 4 day Encenada, Mexico. This was just to see if we wanted to do a 7 day cruise next year.

We arrived at the Carnival Cruise parking lot in Long Beach, CA. There was two really big lines and we weren't sure which one to go in. There was not one person to direct the hundreds of people arriving.

We stood in one line for 30 minutes to find out we could either check our luggage in with the lady and we would have to wait about 2 hours for it to arrive in our rooms or we could just roll the luggage onto the ship. 30 minutes wasted in that line. We rolled our luggage.

Then we get in a line to board the ship. We have to pass through security. We have to put our keys, cell phones, and pocket knives into a basket, then remove our laptops from their carrying case, and making sure we still have our photo id and birth certificate in our hands. No electronics may be used in this line. So I followed directions. I just got my iphone so I watched that baby carefully get passed in a basket with my keys, pocket knife, etc. I almost dropped the laptop because I only had two arms to juggle all this security crap.

I am sure terrorists have their own entrance on the back side of the boat that doesn't require anything but a handshake and a promise to be good on the boat.

I finally get through security and the file us like cattle into another room where we have yet another line.Oh goody! look at this mess:



30 minutes again to get through this. Luckily we had two screaming kids in this line or I would have had nothing to complain about. Pure entertainment!

Now we are getting to our rooms and we see that they are dumping peoples luggage in the hallways by their doors even before the people were in their rooms. I saw a few Tumi bags I was tempted to borrow until death, but my Christian side told me to keep walking.

My wife, Tammy, puts our clothes away, while I check out this closet that they are asking us to live in for 4 days. Everything is small like you would see on an RV. We had 10 channels on the TV. 5 channels advertised nothing but Carnival Cruise Crap (CCC) and the other 5 were showing nothing but the Democratic National Convention round the clock......Did I happen to mention I am Christian?

The best part of the whole cruise is about to begin. The part where I get to eat. If you have seen me, you will know that is my favorite thing to do. Not as much now that I am diabetic, but still a lot of fun after an hour and a half in lines.

I find out they only have hamburgers and hot dogs available.



No salad bar. No vegetables. No fruit. Just hamburgers and hot dogs. Hmmmmm. I can't eat that. Oh well, I will cheat today and tomorrow I will eat healthy.

We get back to our room exhausted and full. I am just starting to relax my head and drift off to sleep when the captain now asks us to get out of our rooms, report to the night club with our life vests so that we can do the lifeboat drill. How exciting is this. My first minute of rest and I am running to a club with a flashing orange life jacket acting like the ship is sinking. We haven't even left the dock yet.

(scene change) I am now crunched in with about 100 people on deck in front of a lifeboat waiting for the rest of the boat to follow directions so we can go back to our cracker box rooms.

90 minutes later I am back in my room trying to finish the dream I had started. ( I was dreaming I was home pulling weeds)

I had no luck getting back to sleep. So we decide to sign up for some events. We go to the information desk and there are 30 people in line. Not cool. We decided to come back that night when it was a little calmer. So we came back that night and there were only 30 people in line. Much better.

Here is where the fun begins. We go to play bingo.



It takes them 20 minutes to hand out bingo cards and they still haven't reached my wife and me. So we decide to just do scratchers and get the heck out of there. We can submit losing scratchers for a drawing and win a bottle of champagne. So we buy 30 scratchers. We go to the back of the room and scratch while they play one game of bingo. The game only lasted 5 minutes. Now I am running our losing tickets to the front of the room so I can get them into the bucket for the drawing. As I am dropping my tickets into the bucket, the MC reaches in and pulls a ticket. He pulled the ticket before my tickets had even entered to bucket. I was standing right in front of him. No last call tickets. No waiting for the fat Italian guy running to the bucket or the 5 people he knocked over getting to the bucket. Guess what. You guessed it. I didn't win champagne.

So I ask the MC about cashing in my winning tickets. He said to wait until the next round of bingo. I go back to Tammy and tell her that they will pay us on the next round of bingo. Tammy points to the MC leaving the room and now bingo is over. What!!!!!

Let's review. it took twenty minutes to hand out cards, one game of bingo that lasted 5 minutes, no last call for losing scratchers, no payout for winning tickets until the next round and I find out the next round is TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!

So let's jump to Tuesday night at 4:30pm.

I am ready for an early dinner. I go up to Lido deck to get food. OMG, you would not believe the spread they had that night. It was hamburgers and hot dogs AGAIN!!!
I now proceed to yell at the head guy on Lido deck at the top of my voice, "I can not believe I am being fed this crap. I could eat better at McDonald's across the street from my house. I DID NOT PAY $1000 FOR THIS PIECE OF CRAP SHIP RIDE. You guys are the worst cruise line ever. (not that I had been on another one, but who cares. I was mad)

At this point I am praying for the ship to sink.


The next night I waited in line for 25 minutes for food. My hands are shaking due to my sugar dropping like my stock in Sirius Satellite Radio. I finally get up to where the food is and they tell me they ran out of food. The said they were sorry, but this is now only the soup line. They said I would have to go to the other side Lido deck and wait in that line for food. YOU CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE HOW LOUD I YELLED THAT NIGHT. I YELLED AT ANYONE WEARING A CARNIVAL CRUISE NAME BADGE EVEN THOUGH MOST OF THEM DIDN'T SPEAK ENGLISH!!!

I had to go up to my room and order room service just to get a salad. I was chowing on the chocolates on my pillow just to keep myself from cardiac arrest. Room service took 45 minutes to get me a salad and a pastrami sandwich. Here is what they brought me:



My wife order the chicken wrap. it was so small you couldn't even call it finger food. it was smaller than a finger. Look at this garbage:



This was just the first two days of the worst cruise anyone has ever taken.

I filed 3 complaints on the boat and 2 after I got off and no one has called me back. I told them I want my money back. We are still fighting for this. It ought to be a good one.

To be continued......

UPDATE 9/8/08

I called guest relations about my 3 filed complaints on the boat and my 1 filed complaint off the boat. The lady told me a supervisor would call me today. Well, they have not called.

Update 9/9/08

I called guest relations again. 4:30pm Pacific Time. They are closed. How convenient. This is going to be a long fight. I hope they come to their senses and just refund my money. I am guessing they will offer me a free trip. That's not happening!

Update 9/10/08

I get a wonderful letter from Carnival Cruise Lines. Wait until you read this. People said they would offer me a free trip (over my dead body). Some said to fight all the way to a full refund (over their dead body).

Here is the letter that they sent me. WHAT AN INSULT OF A LETTER.

Update 9/11/08

Not the best date to be doing anything, but I need to get a full refund. I just spoke to Guest Relations again and they apologize that $50 on my next cruise is the only thing they can offer me. I told them that they couldn't pay me enough money to step foot on your boat.

Now I am holding for a supervisor, again. I guarantee she will return stating that their busy and the supervisor will call me back. The same story they gave me last time I called...........waiting............waiting....... this call has been 8 minutes long already..........waiting.......waiting......still on hold.....this call is now 10 minutes long.....waiting.....she came back to tell me she is talking to her supervisor and she will transfer me in a moment.... They obviously are preparing their arguments ..... waiting...... now 14 minutes long and still on hold........17 minutes supervisor Shelly comes on the phone to tell me that they can't give me a refund but they can offer me 15% off my next cruise which I have no plans on taking.

So I get off the phone after speaking with Shelly for about 45 minutes and she truly was nice and understanding. I was quite surprised. She is going to speak with her supervisor, Carlos and then she will call me back Monday or Tuesday.

to be continued.....

UPDATE 9/17/08

Well, I know your laughing by now. I just recieived a phone call from a Carnival Cruise Line sales person trying to sell me another trip. It's Wednesday and no one has called me back from ALL my complaints and now this guy is trying to sell me another trip.

So I get on the phone and call Shelly. She says that Carnival understands my situation and is going to refund me a portion of my cruise. I am not going to post the amount, but I will say that it's enough for me to feel better about this trip. They did right by showing that they cared. They are sending me a refund check and I want to thank Shelly and Carlos for their hard work.

This will not be continued. This matter is closed.

NEVER USE TIME WARNER DIGITAL PHONE SERVICE

I have had Time Warner phone service for over a year. It is the worst company to be with. For the past three weeks it has not worked correctly. I am in touch with a person that is pretty high up in the company and have been complaining to her for quite some time and she can't even get the phones to work properly.

Here is the problem:

When people call me or I call them (either way) they can't hear me speak, but I can hear them speak. That's it. It's very annoying since I also work out of my home office.

So for the past three weeks Time Warner has destroyed my work life. All my clients can't get a hold of me. I am losing business because of this and Time Warner doesn't care. They keep telling me that it will be fixed and it never is.

Time Warner can not handle the load of information going back and forth for all it's customers so it causes my packets of info leaving my home back to the server to stop working. It's all insane. It's because they don't want to spend the money to upgrade servers and software.

So I am refusing to pay my cable, internet, and phone bill until they can provide me with the service I am supposed to be receiving.

Last night my son went into the ER. Then they admitted him to Critical Care Unit and the doctors are trying to call me so they can tell me what's going on. Guess what? That's right, I can't speak to the doctors because Time Warner service is so bad.

I told Timer Warner that if my phone isn't working by tomorrow, I will be calling the corporate office and bugging them every 5 minutes with me complaining about their service and demanding they fix it. I will call the office of the president and continue to bug Time Warner all day long every day.

IF I DON'T GET TO WORK THEN WHY SHOULD THEY!!!!

I will keep you updated.

UPDATE 9/8/08

After complaining, Time Warner has credited me for one month of internet and credited me one month of phone service. They also gave me full details on what was wrong and how it has been resolved. They have taken responsibility and have made me very happy with their kindness.