I came across this article while in a Google+ thread started by someone in the web/tech community.

Me, I have my Twitter status synced with my Facebook, LinkedIn and various other platforms. I like saying something once and letting the respective audience in each forum comment or not.

Case-in-point: I asked a question on Twitter that yielded 0 responses. That same question was auto-published on Facebook. Again, no responses. Yet, on my Google+ channel, it rendered over over 7 responses on that one question. It lead to suggestions & recommendations and more.

Who is anyone to tell  you (or me) where and when I can post. What, you have a blog with millions of readers, get paid $10k to speak at events; congrats – you’re a good marketing professional. Don’t presume to think everyone is of the sheep-mentality and hangs on your every rant.

I like consolidation. Yes, I have different; not by much, audiences on my social channels, but I don’t want to ask the same thing a different way for each place. Ask once, collect the data, move on.

My co-workers used terms like “Canadians” to express their dislike for our Black patrons. White business men equalled money, a couple on a date meant leave them alone and get a good tip. Then there was the large families. Many times, when I was a host, the “head waiters” would scold me for sitting me with a table with 2 or more kids.

It was an unspoken rule that they should only be sat with men (no women unless dressed up) wearing business suits. When I questioned this “rule” I was met with hostility and it even became the “spoken rule” that head waiters did not need to intimidate the hosts with who to sit them with.

On the topic of large families, it was said they were poor tippers. I mean, they have 2+ kids, they must not have the money to be here in our fine establishment AND tip well.

I have four, well-behaved, well-mannered and relatively (in public) quiet kids. They aren’t running around the lobby banging on fish tanks, pulling chairs out, throwing fits on the ground. They sit and play quietly with one another.

Time and time again, I have been to restaurants where it’s all over us…all SIX (omg) of us. The general attitude we feel is that of the example above. We’re here to make a mess of that server’s section, be demanding and at the end of it all, tip poorly. This is the assessment the waiter gives as we’re being sat.

So, instead of providing the service we’re due, that server takes longer than anyone else on the floor (we watch the other servers – tables with no kids), he (usually male servers treat us this way) is impersonal and rarely checks on us. Our drinks sit almost empty, our food is delivered by someone other then our server and when we ask for the things, that takes a long time. You’d think they’d have the check ready for us since they don’t want us there, yet we wait and wait and wait for the check.

This server believes we’re not going to tip well, so why bother. Little does he know my background in the industry, little does he care about our needs to be given good (not even excellent) service when we choose to (on the rare occasion) go out to eat.

When we received this kind of service, I set out to prove them wrong. I would still leave a generous 15-20% tip; sometimes more to get the point across. Now I find myself wanting to prove that it’s their own actions, not my financial ability to tip, the size of my family or anything else of the sort, that causes him to receive a bad tip.

Everyone stereotypes. Everyone. Stop lying to yourself and saying, “well, I never do!”

When I waited tables I tried to treat everyone with a fresh perspective. If at the end they proved the stereotype right, I wasn’t more inclined to take it out on the next guy. I started fresh. White, drunk, redneck men in business suits tipped me $0.10 one time. A Black family tipped me very nicely too. Alas, not everyone thinks like me – would probably be better place though

So next time you’re out, pay attention to how you’re treated. If you’re in a large family, notice how the server reacts (if you spot them while you’re sitting).

What’s your experience with stereotyping in restaurants?

Photo Credit: squeakymarmot

Why would you go to man, who is flawed and self-serving, for answers about G-d? His word, His instructions are there for us to take in for ourselves. Sometimes the simplest answer is the one right in front of you. Not blemished with man’s interpretations, man’s traditions and man’s selfish pursuit of power.

I’ve been told I can be brash about my views. Very matter-of-fact. Well, as a matter-of-fact, my views come straight from what is G-d word, His truths. People have told me, you can’t just give someone the whole truth and expect them to take it in. You have to feed them a little bit of truth here and there. No where in His word does it say to do this. However, John 8:47 says, “Whoever belongs to G-d listens to what G-d says; the reason you don’t listen is that you don’t belong to G-d”.

Ouch. That’s a hard pill to swallow. You don’t listen to what G-d says, i.g. follow his Torah (instructions), so you don’t even belong to Him? That’s not the all-caring-and-loving god I believe in! Truth be told, you’re not worshiping G-d then. You’re worshiping yourself. Your perception of a god who loves everyone. Who loves the sinner but hates the sin. I’m not telling you that you’re wrong, G-d is. The god you want to believe doesn’t exsist. Not in the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings or the Brit Ha’dashah (New Testament).

Pick up your Bible, or go find it. I’ll wait….

Got it? Okay. Open up to Mattityahu (Matthew) 1:1. Hold that spot. Now go to the last verse of Revelation and hold that spot. Notice how much of the “New Testament” you’re holding. Now, tear the other stuff out.

“WHAT?!” You exclaimed.

Well, the rest doesn’t apply to you right? So rip the sucker apart! The Torah (Genesis – Deuteronomy)? That’s for those Jews, not for me. Good stories, but it doesn’t apply here! The Prophets, pssh! They were old men foretelling of doomsday! I don’t need dead men to tell me how to live my life. The Writing (Proverbs & Psalms), well, those make for good Sunday morning worship songs, of course. Hmm…Sun…day worship. I’ll touch on that one next time.

Let me pose a question. If we are to follow Yeshua (or Jesus…yet another blog post) as he instructed us to, what is the standard by which we should follow? You see, Matthew, Mark, Luke & John hadn’t been written yet. So, something tells me that Yeshua (Jesus) wasn’t quoting Matthew 7:21 when he recited it. No, he in fact references Torah in nearly every single word he spoke.

We’ve been plagued by man’s traditions. Jews have fallen away from Torah because the Talmudic Rabbis impose the Takanot (traditions of man) on their people. They wash their hands and pray a prayer claiming G-d commanded us to do so, when in fact, no such commandment was made by G-d.

Christians see the Pagan traditions they have inherited and yet refuse to do away with their Christmas trees (child sacrifice evergreens) and Easter egg hunts (Ishtar - Babylonian goddess of fertility – egg hunt).

Yermeyahu (Jeremiah) 16:19 ADONAI my strength, my fortress, my refuge in time of trouble, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth saying, “Our ancestors inherited nothing but lies, futile idols, completely useless.” Can a person make himself gods?

In fact, many people walk around today making themselves gods. They worship their brand names, cry out to celebrities as idols. They put their personal beliefs in front of G-d’s commandments.

“I know Christmas has Pagan origins, but that’s not what it means to me.” If I had a dollar for every time I’ve had that nonsense was thrown my way. So, people will admit to knowing the truth, yet they refuse to give up tradition and sacrifice truth. “Well, God knows my heart and He knows why I celebrate XYZ holiday”.

Really? Okay, lets go with that. G-d knows your heart, got it. So then He knows you’re purposefully ignoring His commandment NOT to follow the Pagan traditions and CALL THEM HIS. It’s your heart He knows, right? Better check what your heart is really after. Is it to seek His glory or to seek that new gadget coming out right around December 25th – birth date of Osiris (Egyptian), Mirthra (Persian), Attis (Roman), Dionysus (Greek), etc, etc, etc.

G-d knows your heart when on Easter Sunday, you congregate around a table where in the middle sits a splendid, succulent honey-baked ham. He then knows that you’d rather disobey his dietary law regarding pork then to pay his one and only son true respect by not associating his resurrection with Semiramis, The Queen of Heaven & wife of Nimrod. She who died and ascended into heaven and was cast back down in a giant egg in the Euphrates, was renamed Ishtar, and to prove her divinity turned  a bird into an egg-laying rabbit.

Yep, that goes right along with Yeshua being the unblemished, perfect Passover Lamb who sacrificed himself for the sins of the world. Go right ahead and send our daughters & sons out into the church field to find those fertility eggs left by Ishtar.

You see G-d does know your heart and mine. I’m not free of guilt or perfect by any means! I grew up believing the lies spoon-fed to me by parents, elders and religious soapbox ranters.

Take from this what you will. Leave knowing you and I have a lot of learning to do. The last 5 years have been interesting. Something my father-in-law tought me is if you truly want to give up something, ask G-d to make it detestable for you. It won’t happen over night, but if it’s in your heart to really seek His grace and follow His word, it will happen. Trust me, I cringe at the sight of bacon, often holding back a slight gag-reflex; no joke.

And that good reader is my intolerant, bigoted hate-speech. Please proceed to the comments and leave your display of tolerance by telling me I’m wrong.

Since 2nd grade I was involved in music in one form or another. From elementary school all the way through senior year of high school I was in performance choir. Not the sub-par “I need a fine-art credit” classes – the real deal. Traveling, going to festivals and contests. I was in band also. I played the tuba. No, it’s not just for fat people (Mr. Holland’s Opus reference). After high-school I even hosted a karaoke show at local sports bars.

Anyone that knows me well knows I love to sing. I love music. That’s why I’ll admit with out hesitation that I enjoy Glee. A prime-time Fox show about high school glee clubbers trying to make it through their adventure of high school.

The show itself brings back memories or performing with friends on stage. Driving on charter buses out of the city to contest. The music selection is always great. That is until recently.

The show seems to be taking the “let’s-see-how-far-we-can-push-it” road. I mean, teen pregnancy, drug use, homosexuality…sure; been there done that through Saved by the Bell, Roseanne, Full House…all the ABC TGIF night shows we children of the 80s grew up on. So, I really have no issue since it’s already been done many times before; now it’s just being set to music.

When I first heard Glee would be doing a rendition of Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream I wasn’t really shocked considering their recent subject matter and musical choices: Lady Gaga, Madonna, Britney Spears and Rocky Horror.

Then I actually listened to the song. Read the lyrics.

While they portray someone being comfortable with their partner and reliving their youth and all that jazz, the overall theme is, because you think these things about me, “I’m pretty with no make-up on” etc, “let’s go all the way tonight”…”no regrets, just love”.

No regrets? Er? This coming from the show that highlighted a high school cheerleader getting pregnant?

I get it. The song is about two consenting adults talking about putting their hands on each others skin-tight jeans and going all they in premarital euphoria with no regrets. The character feels like she’s young again, living a teenage dream. Fine. Whatever. It’s pop music. What can you expect.

Now having characters on a popular show watched by adults and teens alike is where I’m a little perturbed. It’s high-school characters – teenagers – singing about going all the way cause you think they’re funny when they tell the punch lines wrong. Teenage characters played by adults, sure. But what message are they sending?

Lately, Glee’s cast has been getting themselves in to these controversies and they don’t seem to really care – though they’ll say they’re sorry for doing it.

What’s that you say? Kids are exposed to this stuff all the time anyway? Oh sure then, of course, let’s just embrace it and not have any moral standards, right? Well, that’s what you’re implying, isn’t it? Kids see sex, drugs and everything in between in the daily lives, why not let art imitate life?

Or is art imitating life imitating art?

If that’s the case, cue up that cute snake charmer song by Ke$ha…you know the one, “There’s a place downtown where the freaks all come around. It’s a hole in the wall, it’s a dirty free for all…” cue that bad boy up and stick on the next Kid’s Bop album. That’ll sell some units. Kids singing about taking it off!

I hope Glee continues to shine as a record-setting show that brings in the masses from different walks of life. I also hope they can do it with class and not resorting to the tactics that often cheapen the value of something that was once nice, wholesome and fun.

Am I completely off base here? Do you think Glee is pushing the envelope for the sake of pushing the envelope? I mean, the show is basically the same episode format each week – do they just need something to keep us tuned it?

I make my way up to the individual selling items and ask the price and what not. Then comes the follow up. “So, we don’t trade money on the Sabbath, we’re Jewish…would you mind holding it for us till sundown?”

Reaction: Really? You don’t spend money? I wish I could be that religion.

Me: Blank stare.

Internal monologue: How about you try just not spending money.

Photo creds: Bob n Renee

I’m pretty active on the web. I spend some time watching funny videos as they come to me or as I stumble upon them. But a lot of the time I see an article on Mashable that makes the claim that XYZ video or campaign has gone viral.

That’s when I say, I didn’t see it. Not that I’m the end-all-be-all of viral marketing knowledge. Just because I didn’t see it, doesn’t make it less viral, but ya know. But still, which came first; in some cases, the viral or the marketing?

Is apart of the marketing that asset that makes it viral? Old Spice had a great campaign. One that I saw on TV then the viral aspect kicked in. But some of these stories like Cee-lo’s song goes viral makes me stop and wonder. I would’ve never come across this – most likely – had it not been for Mashable telling me it went viral.

The scene from the Matrix also comes to mind where the Oracle tells Neo not to worry about the vase and he asks, “What vase” then bumps into it and it breaks. She then replies, “…would you still have broken it if I didn’t say anything?”.

Make sense? What do you think?

Photo by: The Wander’s Eye

Abraham Lincoln was reported to have said this, but may in fact be made up. Regardless, it’s a quote that resonates in today’s atmosphere. It highlights the corruption that we can see today running rampant in Washington; on both sides of the aisle.

The Left vs. Right, Liberal vs. Conservative, Democrat vs. Republican paradigms do nothing more then set us against one another, giving the oligarchical powers behind the scenes  the perfect opportunity to destroy our sovereignty.

They create class envy.

They perpetuate racism on both sides of the argument.

They sit back and laugh as we fight amongst each other.

How do we fix it? Revolution? Out with old?

I don’t know. What I do know is if people went back to basics, read G-d’s Word and how to live one’s life – things would probably be a lot better.

The problem with that is people tend to want to interpret what they read to fit their comfort level. They introduce tolerance where G-d said not to tolerate. They make excuses as to why they think it’s okay and G-d would understand.

If G-d was small enough to understand and concede to our interpretations, then He would not be a god with following. He would not be the G-d in the Bible. But in saying this it creates divisiveness amongst us. We’re back to the issues above. You believe it to be one way, I believe it to be another. We continue to fight. They continue to use it against us.

How do we fix it? Can we?

Yet there is one phrase that still gets under my skin every time I see it. ASAP which we should all know means As Soon As Possible.

Dictionary.com defines “possible” as: that may or can be, exist, happen, be done, be used, etc.

Lets look back at the original statement: As Soon As Possible. As Soon As It can be, exist or happen. In other words, as soon as you can possibly get to it. Nowhere in there did it say, “as soon as RIGHT NOW“. Did you see it? I didn’t.

So guess what, when you tell me “as soon as possible”, you’re telling me, as soon as you get a chance, please do this. If you need me to do something RIGHT NOW, say, “hey, I know you’re busy and all but can you do this for me…right now?” Then I’ll respond to you right now with my answer. But, let me emphasis it, if you say “as soon as possible” and you meant right now…that’s not what I meant to me. It means when possible.

Lets all try to use ASAP responsibly. Oh..and if you ask me to respond ASAP, then send an IM, text message DM or message on Facebook…you didn’t mean “as soon as I have a chance”. You meant to say right now.

Photo by db*Photography

After that we took the kids to the park for a little while. The boys and I rode our bikes around the neighborhood and had some races. Good family time.

As we were riding back to our house a beat-down, blue pick-up truck with two men inside approached us. The conversation went a little like this:

Driver: Hey! You like eating good steaks?

Me: Yea, of course.

Driver: Take a look at what I got in the back (There was a large freezer in the bed of the truck)

Me: Oh sorry man. I don’t do any business on Saturdays…we’re Jewish.

Driver: (long pause) How do you buy stuff??

Me: (Annoyed face) There’s six other days in the week to buy stuff…

Driver: I’ve got Jewish friends that buy stuff on Saturday.

Me: Well….we don’t sorry, bye!

They continued driving around going door-to-door trying to sell meat off the back of their truck.

A) I would never buy anything from a guy wearing a wife beater, driving a pick-up truck, selling meat in a freezer.

B) We’ve had that same question so many times: How do you buy stuff? What if you need to eat, buy gas, etc.

Well folks, like I told the guy waiting to be on an episode of Cops, there’s six other days to buy stuff. As for eating, well gee – we eat what we have in the house – duh. Buying gas – c’mon, I can fill up Friday. Think this through.

I guess ignorance can be bliss, oy vey.

Photo by: Jetalone

Over the last few weeks, my (very pregnant) wife has been telling me to get her some of her favorite girl scout cookies; Samoas – or Carmel Delights, as they were once known. Since I don’t make it point to go to the grocery store every day, we waited till the weekend to do a little shopping with the ulterior motive being; find us some Samoas!

I took to Twitter and Facebook before venturing out to 10 different places that had some girl scouts posted in the front. No luck there, unfortunately. Luckily, Dreyer’s also makes limited edition flavor of, you guessed it – Samoa!

This brings me to my plea to both Girl Scouts of America and all you awesome Application Developers – I’m a Mac, so iPhone in this case.

I would love an App that allows Girl Scout Troops to ‘check-in’ – much like FourSquare – and then the app itself plots their location and you, as the user can search based on your location. This would be a great tool during this time of year to help frustrated husbands, fearing for their lives, find girl scout cookies on-the-fly.

What do you think? Can this magic I speak of become reality? I sure hope so. And, if it happens..I sure hope I get a little credit

Photo by: Rex Roof