"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. "
Thomas Paine

Saturday, November 30, 2013

The Tradition Continues





EVENT DATE: JAN 01, 2014
- See more at: http://www.crowdrise.com/TheTraditionContinues/fundraiser/eddieallen#sthash.AOKrb58n.dpuf
Eddie's Photo
Eddie's Photo
Eddie's Photo
Eddie's Photo
Eddie's Photo

EVENT DATE: JAN 01, 2014
DAYS TO GO: 32

THE STORY:
This is the third year in a row that I've left my little
 Colorado Mountain town and come to visit my 76 yr old
 mom in Brooklyn .
 On New Years Eve we go to the 5 hr govt Mule show
 with a good friend. On New Years Day we get up and
 friends who come down from Connecticut either support
 or join me in this very worthwhile cause. Make my trip 
worth it for the kids and give generously! 
Thanks
Eddie Allen
 http://www.crowdrise.com/TheTraditionContinues/fundraiser/eddieallen#sthash.AOKrb58n.dpuf
Eddie's Photo

Here Is A Guide To The Best Christmas Gifts

   If your going to buy Christmas gifts, why not buy gifts that make a positive difference in the world? Why not make this Christmas extra special by giving gifts to your loved ones and helping improve the world at the same time? The following is a guide I copied from The Rainforest Alliance Blog. You don't have to shop any where  special, even Walmart has some of the products.

Your Guide to Green Holiday Gifts and Gatherings

With the holiday season just around the corner, it’s time to start planning your holiday meals, picking out the perfect presents and decking the halls with boughs of sustainable greenery. This year, ensure that your celebration is joyous in spirit and gentle on the environment. By looking for the Rainforest Alliance Certified™seal and the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®)  logo on products, you can give back to the planet while supporting forest communities around the world.
Need suggestions? We’ve put together a list of a few of our favorite things to get you started.
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Green your holiday gifts
  • For the pampered. Spoil them with luxurious bath and body products. Pangea Organics® andMrs. Meyer’s Clean Day® offer indulgent soaps featuring palm oil from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and Alba Botanicals offers skin and hair care products made with Rainforest Alliance Certified Andiroba and Brazil nut oil.
  • For the technophile.  Consider the sustainable and stylish range of iPhone cases from Twig, made with FSC/Rainforest Alliance Certified paper composite.
  • For the romantic. Pick up one of Harlequin’s many titles printed on FSC-certified paper. (Currently, 15 percent of Harlequin’s paper supply is FSC-certified and the company has committed to scaling up.)
Green your holiday feast
  • Sustainable foods.  When planning your holiday feast, look for sustainable and local ingredients. Visit Shop the Frog to find a list of food items featuring the green frog seal including chocolate, coffee, tea and fruit.
  • Eco-friendly kitchenware. Epicurean offers a gorgeous range of cutting boards made with FSC-certified wood.
Green your holiday decor
  • Beautiful bouquets.  Choose blooms grown on farms that protect people and the planet–just look for the green frog seal at Costco, Sam’s Club, Whole Foods Market and Walmart.
  • Outdoors inside. Use pine cones, acorns, leaves and other festive foliage to make one-of-a-kind decorations.
Visit Shop the Frog, our online database of products featuring the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal, for more sustainable suggestions.


Friday, November 29, 2013

The Zombie Apocalypse Is Upon Us!.

  YES! YES!!!! I see it everywhere I go! A virus that IS taking over the population and making Zombies out of everyone. I see the zombies in stores, restaurants and walking down the streets! Walking around with vacant looks on their faces. Everyone staring into these little black boxes, not seeing whats going on around them, living in these little black boxes. Texting someone when you could yell across the room at them. The virus is the so called "Smart Phone"! Its smart all right its controlling your life! Its thinking for you and distracting you from the real world. Herding the sheep.
Beware of any devices that look like this! Use sparingly! Just put the phone down and breath deep. Really???? Are you SOOOOOOOOO important that you have to use the phone while in the check out line paying for your groceries??????  Have our manners gotten so poor that you can't leave your phone in the car while dinning out?????  In a Homer Simpson voice~ "OOOOOHHHHH Look at the important  person with his important phone. He must be as important as the president!!!"

Best Buy Response to Better Business Bureau Complaint

                At one last stab to see if"Best Buy"would do the right thing, I filed a complaint with the "Better Business Bureau". I knew by this time the Toshiba piece of shit lap top was out of warranty, but what the hell, we've taken it this far.
        The following is "Best Buys" response.
11/26/2013 Receive Business Response 
Since there was no Geek Squad Protection plan purchased on the unit, we would not be able to replace it. Best Buy does not administer the manufacturers warranty, which is now expired. Any repairs would be COD.
    This is telling me that if you don't buy "Best Buys" extra insurance, they do not stand behind the products they sale.  How can anybody sale something and not stand behind it??? A faceless corporation that is who! A local artisan/craftsman would stand behind their product and make it right because they are part of the community. Faceless corporations don't care about community, everything revolves around numbers adding up.
       Boycott Best Buy and Toshiba!
  The "Better Business Bureau was satisfied with the response, even after I told them the lap top didn't work right from day one.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

          I really like to complain and hate on faceless corporations. There are a few, that no matter how I want to hate them, they try to do the right thing.
        Flying the friendly skies used to be fun. you got a free adult beverage, you were treated courteously, if a plane was late for any reason, the airlines bent over backwards to try to make you happy. Now days with all the security, it's more like your cattle being lead to slaughter and you have no room in your seat, even when I flew first class from ATL - GSP the seat was very uncomfortable. Two of my last three flights with Delta have been nightmares. Both were for funerals. #1~ Airlines don't do bereavement flights anymore. $800 round trip from DEN - GSP for the last trip. A couple of year ago, my flight out of Denver was late. I was told I would miss my connecting flight out of Atlanta but that they would have a hotel room.  In Atlanta there were no hotel rooms. They were passing out $50 vouchers for future flights. I was so pissed that I told the lady "a lot of good it was doing me right then and after this who says I'll ever fly with Delta again." Delta does have the cheapest airfares.....the next flight went according to plan. Then this last year. My first flight out of GSP was late and the stewards were nasty rude, yelling at people. I missed my connecting flight out of Detroit. I was stuck in Detroit for 5 hours. Delta gave me a $6 voucher. $6 wont buy you hardly anything in an airport. It was the weather, I know it wasn't really Deltas fault. The thing is; I think part of what is wrong with our society is that no one wants to take responsibility for anything that goes wrong. There is NO where that "The Buck Stops."    Airlines used to take responsibility no matter the fault.  Because of my frustration with all the fun being taken out of flying and my two very bad flights with Delta, I love to make Delta my whipping boy. I keep saying that I'm never going to fly with Delta again. There again they usually have the lowest priced flights. I plan to fly with them one more time, we will see how it goes.
      Over the years, I've flown a good bit. When I first asked about my sky miles account, when you still bought your ticket at a counter and not on-line the ticket people told me the miles would be added automatically. I have a card and the other day I got curious and went on-line to check my account. I don't know, maybe you had to register and I never did, maybe I have another account. I'm a dumb-ass when it comes to this kind of stuff...... all right! I registered the card I had and the only miles on there were for my up coming trip. You can enter flights from 9 months before. When I tried to add the trip from July, the site wouldn't let me. So, of course they had a place to file a question, I was really only going to inquire about the sky miles, I didn't mean to complain..... uh, then they used the words... or complaint.  I started about the miles and then quickly went into my diatribe on my frustrations with the previous flights. They were very apologetic After digging up some information for them, they gave me 5000 miles and someone else is supposed to contact me about my flight in July.  That is a nice gesture. It probably covers most of my miles I've flown, but you see, it takes 10,000 miles to get a discounted ticket and as little as I fly, that will take forever.  Maybe its greedy of me, but I want something tangible, something that makes me feel good right now about what happened during a terrible situation. If they want me to think of them in the way I think of North Face, it would be nice if I got some upgrades or free stuff on my upcoming flights.
   At least they were apologetic, timely in their response and made an effort to correct something that wasn't really all their fault. Very unlike Toshiba and Best Buy who take no responsibility for the products they make or sale.

     

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Best Buy and Toshiba Boycott

     I bet Best buy and Toshiba was thinking they were never going to hear from me again! ha,ha!!!!!
    As a last gasp effort to get this settled in my favor. I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. After filing a complaint with the Consumer Agency and not getting a response I don't expect much but maybe it will send a message and my complaint is now posted on the Better Business Bureau  web site for the whole world to see.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Reincarnated

             I watched the documentary "Reincarnated" last night. Its about Snoop Dog going to Jamaica to do a Reggae CD and his conversion from a Gangland Rapper to all about peace,love, struggle, Reggae singer.
          Its a very entertaining video. Its filled with Snoop going on about his history of gang violence and how he wants to change all that and be a man of love and peace. UHHHH,  there is a LOT of weed smoking in this video.
      Now I don't want to say that Snoop Dog isn't sincere in his desires, but he is a hustler and when he shows up to a funeral in a Rolls Royce and patent leather shoes or what ever those ridicules things were, I just think he has a ways to go. He hangs out with Rastafarians in Jamaica, some of the poorest people in possessions there are. When I was in Jamaica, years ago, there were people living in tents. Its a very poor country. He hangs out like he is one of them. If they saw his Rolls and some of his suits, I'm just not sure they would feel the same way.
   All I'm saying is maybe if Snoop dog is sincere, then maybe he should help out the community more instead of making a video to support his new CD, which is really what this is, in my opinion. If he wants to be a man of peace, then just maybe he needs to go hang out and talk to people like Michael Franti who is building play grounds in war torn countries, Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews, Widespread Panic and Further who give tons back to the communities. It seems like Govt Mule is always doing a benefit of some sort. Widespread Panic holds food drives at their shows all over the country. Further is involved in the Further Foundation and the Rex Foundation was started to support the arts. Snoop Dog could join 1 % for the planet, Jack Johnson does and then gives out info at his shows.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

A Loss Of Style

                    I've been looking at old pictures this morning on the net. Pictures that have been colorized, some pretty amazing affects for sure. There is just one more thing I noticed in this picture, a sense of style. In our corporate attempt to homogenize everything, to make everything politically correct and the same from "sea to  shinning sea" I think we have lost our sense of style. Sure there are fashion crazies and everybody jumps on the band wagon of the newest latest craze, Doesn't matter if its wearing lingerie where people can see it or wearing your pants so low, all gangsta to where half your underwear is sticking out or big beards. People jump on it. What I'm talking about is not how much you spend but how you wear it. An attitude of looking good and being your own person.
            You can really see this in buildings and cars. You look at some of the mills and factories from the 30's that were built when brick laying was a craft and there were no minimum wage laws. No, you went and worked as an apprentice and you learned and earned a trade, a craft and that became in many places, works of art, really, if you look at them. They have style! They are not pre-poured, pre-molded put together like legos. I've seen many beautiful buildings torn down to make way for a parking lot of mall. Our cars are the worst, yea they can drive themselves almost and have every safety feature going, video for the kids, heated seats, but no style what so ever. look at this 1956 Cadillac compared to a 2013. Sure the 2013 is all aerodynamic and all but look at the lines and frill of the 1956. the 56 is a thing of beauty and STYLE!!!! Ha,ha!!!!
          Don't follow the corporatized crowd! Put your own personal spin on the way you dress and the way you lead your life. Express yourself! Ha,ha!!!

     

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Settle The Argument This Way

              There are a lot of good arguments on both sides of the Marijuana legalization issue. It now seems to be legal or nearly legal in two states and it seems more states are legalizing it for its medical benefits all the time. I think we need to look at it in a totally rational and scientific way.
             I think this is the question a scientist would ask; Is Marijuana unhealthy and a menace to society?
       We know with out a doubt that too much nicotine and alcohol will kill you. But what about Marijuana?
          Here is what I think a doctor or scientist should do;
  Marijuana has been illegal for over 70 years. I know for a fact there are people out there that have smoked marijuana regularly for at least 30 years or more. We should find 100 of them and compare them with 100 people who have never smoked pot, same age group, same income level. How they treat their families, jobs, mental health, physical health every aspect of their lives should be compared.
    I think this would give us some great statistics to compare and see how dangerous marijuana really is.
                                                                                   

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