When I lived in Tangxia; Danguan there was this twice-a-year event that is worthy of reporting. You see, I lived in a little city part of a bigger city next to Shenzhen. It is a small manufacturing city located North of Shenzhen in the Pearl River Delta. And being a manufacturing city, dating back many centuries, there were a lot of old buildings and old roads, and old sewer lines.

Well, twice a year, the local government would “fog” the underground sewers. This was a release of insecticide in a mist fog that would be sprayed by huge trucks all over town. The idea was to kill off the insects and rodents, and the city had been doing this for centuries.

But…

Let me tell you all that when that happened, a virtual carpet of huge (mouse-sized) cockroaches swarmed out of the sewers and carpeted everything. Some flew, many just climbed all over, including on shoes and trousers and woman’s legs. It was darn crazy!

If you saw it, you would not believe it. Not a scrap of concrete could be seen; three layer deep of swarming cockroaches everywhere. Wholly shit!

Last time it happened, my wife was so freaked out that I had to carry her two blocks back to our apartment. She was hysterical and had goosebumps all over her arms and legs. Jeeze! So imagine the scene, they were crawling, racking, flying, swarming, on everything. On our feet, the trees, the sidewalks, the store windows, the cars. They were buzzing, hopping and leaping, and my wife was in goosebumps and hysterical.

An experience that I do not want to relive ever again. Let me tell you what!

Today…

What is the nastiest home you have been in?

I was about 13 and was asked by a family friend to help her step daughter out by babysitting her 3 kids while she worked at a pizza parlor in town. It would be from the time I got out of school till 10pm, but Summer vacation would start in a couple weeks so I figured I could manage it.

I agreed to try it and see how it went. The day I was to start, I rode my bike to the house. I could smell some horrible smell from the yard. Went to the door and it was wide open. I yelled “hello??” and 3 of the cutest kids I’d ever seen came running! They were full of questions. I asked where their Mom was and the eldest said she was already at work. I was surprised, but I figured something had changed with our plans and she had to go in early.

I walked into the living room and the air was thick with stench. It was a combination of animal waste, rotten garbage and food. The living room had a couch, a chair and was literally 3 feet deep in clothes, garbage bags and dirty diapers. I was a kid and wasnt sure where to start, but i found a roll of garbage bags and we began. I say we because those babies were such a help!

The oldest was Michael and he proudly told me he was 5 and would be staring Kindergarten the following year. He was short and stocky with a mop of curly blonde hair. What I first noticed was his serious expression. He had an excellent vocabulary and was a chatter box. Next was a little girl named Jessica. She was 3 and absolutely beautiful. She was quiet but didnt miss anything. She was petite and had hair to her waist that was full of tangles. The baby girl was Grace and she was 2. She was very frail looking, although she turned out to be anything but frail. She was in just a diaper which was soaked, so I asked Michael to show me where the diapers were. We all headed into the girls room. It was filthy. I find a clean washcloth and get Grace cleaned up. She smiled the whole time. They were all hungry, so we head to the kitchen. I found a can of soup and some stale crackers, which they devoured. While they ate, i started on the kitchen. The sinks and counters were i overflowing with dishes. I turn the faucet handle and no hot water! So i start heating water after digging to uncover the stove. Theyve devoured the soup and want more. There was nothing more, so i grab my backpack and find a yougurt to split, some cookies and an apple which was all split between the 3 of them. I noticed there was no bickering. These 3 were accustomed to looking out for each other.

We started with the garbage and those kids really worked hard…..even the baby! We started by getting the garbage bagged up, and I started laundry. We worked for hours, and those kids didnt want to stop! They wanted a clean house. We got the living room mucked out, we found clean sheets and got beds made. The kitchen had a good start. I went in and cleaned the bathroom while they found jammies. I looked up from scrubbing and those faces were beaming. Got Grace in the tub and started detangling Jess’s hair. I know it had to hurt……but she never made a peep. Grace was clean and ready to get out. Water change and Jessicas turn. When she was clean, we changed water and gave Michael his privacy. I took the girls and checked the magical backpack. I found some nice lotion and they smelled lovely! They both had beautiful hair and kept touching it. Michael gets out and wants some lotion too. We decided to move Michaels bed in with his sisters (his “bedroom” was tiny, i think it was a.closet) We found some books and read. They were all asleep in minutes. As I detangled myself feom the sleeping babies, Michael asked if I was going to come back. I gave him a hug and said Id see him tomorrow. He grinned and it made my day. I waited for Mom to get home. It was almost 11 PM by the time she got home and I could tell she had been drinking. She introduced herself and looked around the room. She was shocked. She asked who had cleaned and i told her we all did. I see a car pulling up and its my Dad coming to see why Im so late. She says she had a meeting and was kept late. He ssaid”Look, we need her done at 10. Not 1001! If you cant be home at 10, she cant do this “ He loaded my bike up. He asked how it went. I didn’t want to tell him how dirty it was because I was afraid he would say I couldnt go back, and I had promised Michael.

And so it went. Every day, the kids and I would clean up a bit more. The cleaner the house got, the more time we had to walk to the park or go to the community pool. We had a great time and those 3 kids were all amazing.

I babysat the kids all that summer and into the start of school. It was just too much and I had to quit after Christmas vacation. I still watched them occasionally and we always had so much fun. This was in the early 70s. I still see the 3 kids who are adults now with families of their own. Michael went on to become an executive chef and works at a very trendy restaurant in the San Francisco area. He has a couple of kiddos and a lovely wife. Jess is an RN and works in the Lake Tahoe area. Shes a single mom of 2 boys and Grace is still local and keeps me in the loop with updates. She married a local guy and they have a daughter. She teaches at the local elementary school.

Its weird because it was such a short period of time, but it left us all with a bonding of the heart. Their Mom passed away last year and I went to her services and got to see all the kids (lol at KIDS!!) They introduced me as the best babysitter ever.

Filthiest house produced some wonderful humans. I was happy to be a small part of that. Sorry this was so long. Was a lovely trip down memory lane. Thanks for reading.

A bad sign

What has been the roughest moment in life?

When my husband caught me cheating on him. There are no excuses, it was an incredibly stupid, selfish, and insane thing to do to someone who didn’t deserve it. The person I cheated on my husband with wasn’t worth it, that’s for sure.

After telling most of my friends and family what I did, my husband packed his bags and left. I spent a week on my couch contemplating suicide and hitting absolute rock bottom. My friends all took his side, understandably. Almost everyone I loved turned away. I fell physically sick with some sort of insane flue—the worst I’ve ever had in my life, probably from the stress.

I could’ve turned to the guy and tried to start fresh. New life, new boyfriend, new friends… Get that divorce and start over. Instead, I realized that what I had was worth fighting for, even if it took years to get it back. I ended the affair with that guy.

I wrote to each friend and family member who knew about this that I was going to do whatever it took to build my life back. I wrote to my husband. I begged him to come back. By some miracle… he did. We went to counselling, I went to therapy. I opened my life to my husband: no more privacy. He had access to everything, which I was completely fine with.

It took a long time, but eventually my friends came back. My husband’s trust slowly began to rebuild. Years and years later, our marriage is strong-full of incredible love, respect, and trust. I look back at what I did in complete disgust. I live everyday with that heartbreak, wishing I’d never put such an amazing person through that. Although that time was dark, it was the push I needed to wake up and stop living like a selfish idiot.

I wouldn’t trade the life I have now for the world. It took incredible pain and humiliation to get here, but it’s what led to my amazing life now. For those going through a dark time, take it day by day… one step at a time. I never thought I’d ever get here, but with hard work and patience, it will get better.

Send your soul to Jesus

As a police officer, has someone ever been so terrified when you pulled them over for something minor that it broke your heart?

Not sure of the exact date, but it would have been mid to late ’80s in Bristol city centre.

Late one evening I was in a crew of 6 in a transit van when we saw a knackered looking Fiat 127 (they were never brilliant when new, let alone one that was 15 years old!). Half of the lights were out, smoke from the exhaust (and lots of noise).

Pulled the car over, and found it contained 2 adults and 3 children (all under 6 or 7 at a guess). Occupants were of obvious Asian descent (not unusual for that area of Bristol), so I started to ask the usual questions whilst a colleague looked over the car (which was found to have 3 bald tyres, no window wipers and a lot of rusty holes in the bodywork).

The driver and adult passenger were almost in tears, and trying to speak in English, which wasn’t that great. I established that they were Mauritian, and had only arrived in the UK that day. Once I spoke to them in French they looked relieved (my French isn’t brilliant, but was better than their English). He produced a Mauritian Driving Licence, and when asked for insurance and registration for the car (which they had purchased upon arrival at the airport), they produced a hand-written receipt showing that they had paid £1000.00 cash for the car! (it was worth about 20 quid scrap value, and certainly shouldn’t have been on a road). Even worse, he proudly produced another hand-written “Insurance Certificate” for which he had paid the car seller another £300.

They had come here to attend a family funeral, and had been royally ripped off by some scumbag near Heathrow as they needed to get down to Bristol as soon as possible.

Obviously, we couldn’t let them continue driving as it was unlikely to get them very far anyway, and was a liability to everyone else on the road.

I had no intention of getting my pen anywhere near to an official ‘ticket’, and explained the game to my Sergeant – who fully agreed with me.

All the time, the family were getting more and more upset as they started to realise the situation they were in and the trouble they thought they were in.

We took them back to our station (and a colleague drove their car), fed and watered them, spoke to relatives by telephone, and sorted out as much as we could at that time.

They were taken to a hotel for the night and agreed to surrender the car for destruction.

As the story spread throughout the night (between other colleagues, paramedics, fire-fighters, hospital staff and taxi drivers…. that was the way things were in the City at that time) offers of help came in.

By the time we went off duty at 0700 hours, the hotel bill had been waived, a taxi was ready to take them down to Exeter (their intended destination), and a collection had raised just under a grand in cash. Toys had been donated for the children, and small ‘gifts’ for the adults.

By the time they arrived in Exeter, the local police had found and purchased a small run-around car which wasn’t great, but had a few months of MOT and tax left on it, and was roadworthy… enough for their use whilst they were in the country.

We got a lovely letter from them once they were back in Mauritius, thanking us for the help we gave (and arranged) – but we only did what we could to help someone who needed it, and had been badly treated by opportunistic scum.

Edit:-

Thanks for the gramatical corrections – I try my best, but often fail!

I’ve never had a higher-rated answer on Quora, or received so many comments – Thank you, everybody.

It is not often that I bother to answer many questions, being a ‘reserved’ British ex-cop many situations just don’t seem worthy of reply, or have already got a few good answers.

I fully appreciate that probably 95% of the questions (and thus, answers) are posted from the USA, and whilst i find them interesting to read, are often so alien to a British way of thinking that I see no advantage in adding to them.

Anyone who reads my other (very few!) answers on Quora will see that I have some views and oppinions on some things – mainly to counter the critics and troll posters when it gets a bit ‘personal’, or to defend those who I feel need it.

I have no desire to be a “super user” on here, despair at many of the “questions” asked, but still feel that (every so often) even the British have something useful to add to this world.

Men want…

Who are some of the nicest rock musicians? I’m aware of the rock jerks, but at the same time there’s gotta be some genuinely nice rockers.

I have to tell this story. I started writing song when l was about 15 years old. One of my biggest influences was Harry Chapin. I live in Los Angeles, and Harry played at the Greek Theatre every year. I went to see him four or five years in a row after getting my drivers license.

Harry played about 300 concerts a year. He gave about half the money he made to world hunger. After the concert, he sat and sold and signed T shirts for the cause and would stay until every person who wanted to buy a T-shirt was able to . His Security guys, always moved people quickly through, because they knew Harry would talk to everyone. After the first concert l stood in line to get a signed T-shirt, and when it was my turn l told him l was a songwriter. He smiled and said, “ Really ? I wish you the best of luck”. The following year l went to where he was signing T shirts, and to my surprise , he saw me and asked, “ How’s the songwriting going?” While he was signing T-shirts, I stood to the side and talked to him about songwriting. His security tried to make me leave, but he said, “. Leave the kid alone. He’s not hurting anyone.”

l did this every year, and the last time l saw him, l was 20 years old and had got my first job playing songs at a Shaky’s Pizza place. I told Harry that and that l played Taxi, but that there was a part l couldn’t figure out. He turned to one of his security guys, and said, “ Go get me one of the guitars out of the truck “. Pretty much all the people who were buying T shirts were done . The security guy said, “ Harry! It’s midnight man. We got to get out of here!” Harry said, “ Just do it.”

The irritated security guy did it and Harry showed me how to play the part. One thing l forgot to mention, was that l had brought me mom with me to see him. She was so happy for me and told that story to people that story unt the day she died. Harry Chapin was a very special man.

Galatoire’s Trout Meuniere Amandine

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 4 (6 to 8 ounce) trout fillets
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Oil
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 tablespoon chopped parsley

Instructions

1. Sprinkle fillets with salt and pepper, dip into milk and roll in flour.
2. Fry in 3/4 inch of hot oil in a shallow skillet until golden on both sides.
3. Remove and keep warm.
4. In a separate pan, melt and whip butter until brown and frothy.
5. Add sliced almonds and lemon juice.
6. Place each fillet on a heated plate and pour sauce over it.
7. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Why do so many countries in the West lie about China to their own countrymen?

Simple

China has a system of Governance that is radically different to that in Western Countries

Thus it is imperative, if the West has to keep it’s “We are the guardians of democracy” model, they have to portray China as evil and the system as collapsing

Otherwise won’t the people ask how if the Chinese system is so bad, is the nation prospering so much?

What is the strangest/best thing that happened to you at a restaurant?

My granddaughter and I were at a Denny’s. We ordered and ate lunch. The waitress came back and picked up the bill that she had left on the table. So we finished and waited for her to bring it back finally called to her as she went past.

We ask for the bill to be brought back and she said no it was paid for.

An elderly man sitting at the counter had paid for our lunch. When I asked her why she said he is a regular customer and told me that he always smiles at people and you and your little granddaughter were the only ones that ever smiled back at him.

What’s something that sucks about being a man?

My wife had a 6 month affair, when I found out I left her.

A number of people assumed I was the one who cheated on her. That bothered me. I corrected them.

Worse were all the people who assumed I must have done something wrong to deserve it and that I was still the bad guy. People told me I must have not paid enough attention to her, I must have some how drove her to it, etc. Some people refuse to believe that I somehow didn’t do something wrong to cause her to cheat.

All I can say is this – I loved her and treated her like a queen. When I’ve asked her why she did it, the response from her has always been that I was a terrific husband, that she loved me, and that she regrets it. The guy was nearly 20 years younger than her (he in his early 20s, she nearly 40), he was attractive and charming and started flirting with her and she found him irresistible.

So, that’s a double standard that I’ve lived through and find unfair; if I had cheated I would’ve been labelled a creep/jerk, when she has an affair I’m still somehow a jerks who is to blame??!

Have you ever met a celebrity who asked you, “Do you know who I am?” and you said no?

Back in 1997 in Canmore, Alberta, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin were in town filming The Edge. Mr. Baldwin decided one evening he wanted to eat at our local Chinese eatery.

I was an Eco-Tourism operator and frequented the establishment quite often. They had an orange chicken that I went bonkers for.

It was peak dining hour and the place was experiencing a 45-minute waiting period to get a table.

In strolls, cocky Baldwin and he demands a seat “NOW!”

The owner was this 5 ft tall fiesty Chinese woman and when she told Mr. Baldwin that he’d have to wait about 45 minutes he pulled the old, Do you know who I am?”

Man, if you could have seen this lady go into action it was an Academy Award for putting an arrogant prick into his place.

She yelled at him with her Mandarin accent, “I don’t care who you are, you get out of my restaurant and don’t come back!”

The rumours of his arrogance have always swirled in the tabloids and I got a front-row seat to see it in action.

And the winner is for putting the Douche BgAlec Baldwin in his place… The Owner of the Famous Chinese Restaurant, in Canmore Alberta.

10 Powerful lessons for the rest of your life

1. Risks are required for life’s greatest rewards.
2. Maintain privacy even with trusted people.
3. Prioritize mental health over any career.
4. Embrace independence to become unstoppable.
5. Accept that not everyone will like you.
6. Your mood is your choice.
7. Don’t stress over things out of your control.
8. Surround yourself with supportive people.
9. There’s always criticism when doing great things. Don’t let it deter you.
10. You have the power to create yourself, life is not about finding yourself.

What is something you want to “get off your chest”?

I need do this anonymously, because it’s a sensitive subject.

I’m a father of two wonderful children, and my oldest, my son, has special needs. Due to his premature birth (roughly 30 weeks), he developed a condition called Periventricular Leukomalacia, or PVL for short.

PVL is essentially an under development, often by necrosis, of white brain matter near the ventricles of the brain. Read up on it a bit on wikipedia for more info if you interested: Periventricular leukomalacia – Wikipedia

We discovered this was case shortly after his first birthday, when doctors started noticing some developmental delays and some muscle stiffness on his left side. Some evaluations and scans, and it was confirmed what he has, and that it also the cause of his cerebal palsy. It was quite a shock.

Anyways, we start doing therapies and early intervention and it’s such a wonder watching him overcome it all in small steps, in his own way. You feel blessed at times to see his hard work pay off, to truly value life and love and family.

So what do I want to get off my chest?

It’s all bullshit. You know those parents who “wouldn’t have their child any other way because it taught us so much about ourselves and….” well fuck that.

I absolutely hate it. Hate. With a capital H.

I have other parents talk to me and they word things like “well, he’ll get past all this and so forth…”. Ummmm, no dumbass. His condition is chronic – forever. We can adapt to it, and work really hard and he’ll cope and be better off for it.

But while Johnny Awesome-Dad and Super Son are learning how to play catch, I’m helping my son learn how to alternate feet when climbing stairs, how to be aware of his raised arm at the elbow and to lower and swing while he walks, while that guy got to teach his son how to swing for the fences.

His mannerisms are collectively a huge brain capillary-exploding annoyance. From the non-sensical sounds that he repeats 100 times to the way he is so damn slow at e v e r y t h i n g.

Yeh, I hate being a special needs parent. On top of being one, I also have to be his political advocate, constantly representing other parents to our federal and state politicians to ensure kids like him get proper educations.

I really really hate all of it. I only love him – I just wish I could heal him. That’s probably the worst. Of all the things I can do and fix, I can’t make him better.

Fuck me.

---

(January 9th, 2019)

Edit: Wow, a lot of upvotes. Most I have ever received by far, my next closest has about 115.

Ok, to a few comments: Thank you for the kind words from most people, the support, sympathy, and empathy. I truly did not write this to receive that as I quite literally was getting something off my chest.

To those who think less of my answer, even angry at me for being so: Your opinion is valued and appreciated. My response to it though is simply a shrug and a “It is what it is.” I know my son didn’t choose to be this way, but understand I am not choosing to feel this way either.

I wish I was a better person in this regard but I’m not. However remember this: I don’t let him see it. Fuck, I don’t even mention it anymore to family because they’ll either blanket me with guilt statements and be angry at me (Fuck You btw) or keep telling me lies like “It’ll all be fine” (no it won’t) or “He’ll be fine” (no, you obviously don’t understand it at all).

How do I cope?

1. Weed. Makes me feel better.
2. Heavy bag – I punch the crap outta it. Actually split the first one and I’m on my second. Looking to buy a speed bag.
3. Bottle it up and get back to my life.

And lastly yes I have considered leaving because he deserves a better Dad. The problem with that is it would take a lot of time for my wife to find another person who wants to take this on. Secondly my other child would suffer the loss of Dad when they did nothing, or have anything, wrong. It wouldn’t be fair and life is unfair enough as it is – I don’t want to add to it.

06 things a leader should never do

1. Don’t be indecisive. Ain’t nobody gonna follow someone who can’t make up their damn mind.
2. Don’t be a two-faced snake. People can smell that crap from a mile away.
3. Don’t be a damn pushover. You gotta have a backbone if you want to make it in this world.
4. Don’t be lazy. If you’re the one in charge, you gotta put in the work.
5. Don’t be a know-it-all. You ain’t that smart, trust me.
6. Don’t be too proud to ask for help. We all need it sometimes.

Level 5 – Impossible

House of Blues Bayou Voodoo Smothered Chicken

Yield: 4 servings; 1 pound Roux

Ingredients

Brown Roux

• 10 ounces all-purpose flour
• 1 cup vegetable oil

Chicken

• 1 pound butter, melted
• 2 pounds chopped onion
• 1 pound chopped celery
• 1 pound chopped red bell pepper
• 1 pound chopped green bell pepper
• 1 pound sliced mushrooms
• 2 ounces minced garlic
• 2 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour
• 4 cups red wine (chef suggests Burgundy wine)
• 2 quarts dark beer
• 2 quarts water
• 2 tablespoons beef base
• 4 tablespoons chicken base
• 1 tablespoon liquid smoke
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce
• 1 cup Louisiana Seasoning

Instructions

Brown Roux

1. Place oil in a heavy stock pot and heat until it smokes. Slowly whisk in flour, 2 cups at a time, mixing well. Cook in oven at 350 degrees F for about 2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes. Roux is done when chocolate brown color is achieved. Allow to cool.

Chicken

1. In a large skillet or sauté pan, add butter.
2. Put onion, celery, red bell pepper, green bell pepper and mushrooms into the pan and sauté.
3. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute.
4. Add flour and stir; cook for 1 minute.
5. Add red wine and reduce until thick.
6. Add dark beer, water, beef base, chicken base and bring to a boil.
7. Add liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce and Louisiana seasoning.
8. Whip some roux into the sauce. Bring to a boil then remove from heat.
9. Put some pre-made rice on a plate, put cooked chicken breast on top of rice and ladle voodoo sauce over the chicken and rice.

None of that matters

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

Ages ago in the late ’70s I worked in an engineering department for a huge manufacturing company – one of the big three in Detroit. A co-worker had about 30 years with the company and a ton of vacation time. He and his wife had a daughter late in life. She was about 8 at the time and daddy took vacation days every Friday and Monday during her summer vacation.

Big boss comes in one Thursday afternoon looking for the doting dad. We say he’s off until Tuesday, and reminded him of daddy’s schedule.

Keep in mind that all vacation had to be submitted and approved, by boss man, in January.

But in this moment he can’t have what he wants when he wants it.

Boss man hits the ceiling. We can’t have that. Everyone has to take vacation in full week increments.

The guy had a pretty specialized skill set, and no one else was really up to speed in his area of expertise. We could fill in in a pinch. Daddy could complete final draft when he got back on Tuesday.

the following summer, I had transferred to another department, but that department struggled when dad took his six-plus weeks of vacation consecutively!

it was a whole lot easier to cover his job for four days than six weeks.

Served that jackass right.

What were some outcomes of committing adultery in your life?

It resulting in us trying for 6 months after ending the affair. To her cheating on me with another man to eventually leave me at the end of the 6 months. Tit for tat I guess. Lots of shame and heartbreak on my end but those are the consequences. Mostly life lessons though. Divorce was the anwser and we will both be happier in the long run.

So true

What’s the weirdest phone call you have ever received?

Many years ago a young woman called me up one evening to ask some questions about insurance regarding the car accident that had happened between her car and mine that afternoon. Slight problem, I hadn’t been in a car accident. She had my name and license plate from the police report so I went out and checked the number of the license plate on the back of my car, and it wasn’t the same number. After a little more discussion I got my auto registration and that did match the number on the report – the license plates on the front and back of my car weren’t the same! After thinking about it I realized what must have happened: I had returned from a business trip a couple days earlier and while my car was parked at the airport parking garage someone had swapped the license plate on the back of my car with a different one and then put my license plate on the car that got in an accident (it was almost the same make and model as my car – they must have been casing the airport). Not surprisingly this turned into quite a mess to untangle, requiring multiple calls to insurance as well as a visit by the police officer to verify my car had not in fact been in an accident. The weird part that still bothers me to this day – the woman driving the car who’d gotten in an accident had the same last name as me. My last name isn’t an unusual one, but it’s not extremely common either. She told the police she was my niece (not likely – I’m white and she was black). How did that happen?

Communication

What is the most interesting fact that you know and I don’t, but I should?

Have you noticed big brands dropping A, B & O from their signs and logos?

Most people who noticed the same, thought that it could be some malfunction but the real reason for the missing A, B, and O’s is something more serious and amazing.

NHS Blood and Transplant organization, along with PR agency Engine Group has launched the ‘Missing Type’ campaign. It has undertaken this campaign to make people aware the benefits of blood donation and its importance of saving lives.

Big brands and companies like Tesco, Mirror, McDonalds, Starbucks and Hardrock Cafe have agreed to be the part of the campaign to make people aware of blood donation.

As a part of this campaign, NHS has asked big brands to omit the letters that signify blood types from their logos and signs viz, blood types A, B, and O.

Truly Amazing !

What is the best moment you witnessed in which somebody proved they weren’t “all talk”?

I watched a 90 lb female put a 235 lb guy in the hospital. This was a fight between 2 neighbors in my neighborhood. This guy harassed her for weeks then for some reason he decided to walk up to her front porch and knock on her door. I was sitting on my front porch when it happened. I was thinking this is not going to be good, and had my cell phone within reach.

She open her door and in a clear loud voice, she requested he get off her property. He said, what are you going to do about it. She said, I’ll call the police. He laughed at her and reached for the screen door. Before I could move she kicked him in the head twice, swept his legs out from under him, and he was down and bleeding.

I started to call the police, but again before I could dial the number a patrol car pulled up and the officer put the guy in handcuffs. I just sat there, drank my coffee and waited for him to come over and ask what I saw. I told him and signed the bottom of the form.

As he walked away he said you know the woman? I replied yes, she’s a former Marine. He chuckled and said. I guess the guy didn’t know that, and I laughed.

When did someone’s culture shock concern you?

When I had an Amish girl come live in with me during the week to help take care of my three-year-old daughter and my brand new twin boys.My husband was in Vietnam.

The first night that I went out to play cards with friends I came home at 10:00 p.m. everybody was sitting in the dark. It was pitch Black and it had not occurred to me that she would not be allowed to turn on the lights or use the electric stove to heat formula.

From them and I would make sure everything was turned on before I left. I only played cards twice a month but they were never left in the dark again. I would heat formula and put it in the thermos bottle but I also showed her how to fill up pan with hot water from the tap to sit the bottles in.

EDIT due to the amount of people that think it was horrible to leave my newborn twins and 3-year-old daughter with a stranger I need to explain the Amish girl lived with me. I would take her home on Saturday morning and go pick her up on Monday morning. I even knew her family. She had helped raise 9 younger brothers and sisters.

Two types of men

What is the most interesting thing you have seen a blind or deaf person do that changed your assumptions about them and amazed you?

When I was in high school I would get terrible menstrual cramps. I would leave school and go to the cab stand down the block. The dispatcher was a man that I’ll call Joe. He was blind.

I would walk in on a wooden floor and Joe would say hi Linda you need to go home? I would take a taxi and come in after school the next day to pay for it. This was in a small town about 15,000.

I grew up, graduated high school, moved away, got married and got pregnant. My husband was going to Vietnam and I went back home to stay with my parents. This was about 6 years after I had left home.

I stopped at a bakery before I went to my parents house. I took one step on a cement floor and a man standing at the counter buying some donuts said “Hey Linda when did you get home?”

I never understood how Joe recognized my one step on the cement floor and I was very pregnant. You would think the sound would be different but he recognized that one step immediately.

What was a red flag that made you stop talking to a person immediately?

A guy I went on a first date with (set up by a friend) told me how his ex wife was having a breakdown and had messaged him that day, to say that she couldn’t cope and was going to call social services and have their two children placed in care. Shocked, I looked at him and said “Couldn’t you take them for a couple of weeks and give her a break?” I kid you not, his genuine, honest response was “Not a chance, I have them every other weekend, that’s enough for me!”. I don’t think I hid my horror very well. Ugly, ugly man. My own son was 3 years old and the time, and if he wouldn’t step up for his own kids, he was going nowhere near mine!

15 Psychological facts everyone should know

1. It takes about 66 days for an average individual to make something a daily habit.
2. Eye pupil dilates to 45% when an individual looks at somebody they love.
3. Food prepared by someone else tastes much better than your own preparation, even when you use the same recipe.
4. Hearing a single negative thing could damage at least five positive memories.
5. Studies have shown that consuming food without preservatives will increase I.Q by up to 14%.
6. Men aren’t more entertaining than women: they only make more jokes, they don’t care whether others like their humor or not.
7. Shy people tell others very little about themselves, but they do it in quite a manner that makes other individuals believe they know them better than they actually think they do.
8. People in blue rooms are also much more productive.
9. Being alone is harder for your health than you really believe.
10. Any relationship born between 16 and 28 years of age is more likely to be robust and long-lasting.
11. If we have a plan B, our plan A is less likely to succeed.
12. Being happy around people makes you happier.
13. Convincing yourself that you slept well tricks your brain into believing you did.
14. The sort of music you listen to influences the way you view the world.
15. A hug longer than twenty seconds will produce hormones into your body that makes you trust the individual who is hugging yo

Moped related crimes

What is the most amazing thing you overheard because people didn’t think you understood their language?

Not so much amazing, as being extremely useful to me. I was on a European Standards Committee for several years. Members came from many European countries and it was customary to conduct all meetings in English.

Often the French and German delegates would speak to each other in the meeting in French or German to try and exclude the UK delegate from what they were plotting. This was on the basis that they assumed that the British could not speak other languages. It was advantageous to me for them not to know that I understood at least the gist of what they were saying.

However, when meeting in Dusseldorf the German delegated took us all out for dinner after the meeting. This was in a very German restaurant and the waitress approached me asking, in German, what I would like to eat. Not thinking, I blew my cover by replying in German.

The German delegate’s jaw dropped and said “you speak German!”. Trying to save myself I admitted that I could speak enough basic german to get by, but I couldn’t resist adding “ but my understanding is better”.

The Swedish delegate sitting next to me actually laughed and gave me a pat on the back.

What is that one picture that describes the lowest point in your life?

Well, everything was going great in my life.

A 26 yrs old with a decent job(in Indian Silicon Valley), beautiful girlfriend, about to be promoted, in short, enjoying my life.

But now,

A road accident(to save a little girl), which confined me to home for 4–5 months, had a knee fracture, operated, implanted with a metal plate inside(permanently).

Promotion aborted(as i m on Medical Leave for quite a longer period).

Cheated by my girlfriend when we were planning to get married, our parents accepted us.

My situation after surgery,

I was full of life. Travelling, working out in gym used to make me feel energized, lively, confident. But my eyes in the above picture are full of unnecessary thoughts, wandering with all the lively moments I had before.

Permanent Implant,

I was planning to call my parents to bangalore so that i can arrange some vacation for them and let them know about me and my girlfriend. But this was not the way i wanted them to come.

Even after accepted by my parents, she cheated on me. This was the time when i needed her the most. I know that,

“We should Forgive people in our life, even those who are not sorry for their actions. Holding on to anger only hurts us, not them.”

Also after one-by-one misfortunes, my self-confidence is f**ked like a Gangbang. So i’m not in a place to keep grudges with her and trying to move on, to forgive her and forget her.

Now they want me to settle down in an arranged marriage with a girl of their choice. And neither I am in position to ask for getting married with a girl of my choice nor in a position of getting married with any girl due to hindrances in my promotion, beautifully f**ked self-confidence.

I’m just trying to recover as soon as possible from the physical and emotional injury so that i can go back to my self made track of life.

This is the way American Dating has devloved

And men are walking away and saying no.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/de0050RtkNo?feature=share

Can the USA easily destroy the Chinese economy by simply sanctioning and forcing the American transnational corporations to leave the Chinese market and close their factories?

No.

Go ask Russians, nearly all western countries did the same as you mentioned to Russia, including the so called “nuclear option”: kicked Russia out of SWIFT, did Russian economy collapse?

Oh, maybe you don’t know the real world, just living in the “information cocoons”, you’re fed with selected information, which made you believe China is easy to win, like our beloved president 45 said, trade war is easy to win.

This is his easy to win:

Now, it is America who’s relying on China, not China relying on America. Say you to buy a Toyota and wait for over a month, sometimes you need to pay extra money, and its price is rising year after year, while in China, Toyota is to buy at will and drive away upon you paid, and its price is lower and lower. For example, RAV 4 in America starts from $29K, while in China, it starts from RMB 175,800, which is about $24.5K.

The problem is not China, it hides in America, destory China can’t solve your own problem.

The big heads are more informed and clever than you average Americans do. They know they can’t win, sanctions, trade wars, are just to slow down China’s pace, not to stop it.

What are some psychological facts about attracting people?

• Wear clean clothes. (perfumes are a gold plus)
• Keep a smile on your face. (Brush your teeth)
• Instead of trying hard to get attention, try to give attention. (People love those who listen to them)

• Ask them for small favors which they will likely say yes to. (game changer)
• Mimic their body language when talking/listening to them. (eye contact is a gold plus)
• Straighten your posture. (Don’t lean forward or backward in a conversation)
• When talking stop saying “I think, but…, I believe” instead use words like “and, because”. (assures that you are confident)

Funny

What screams “I’m upper class”?

Years ago, I was involved with a lawsuit against a tech company. Kind of “class action,” which meant a lot of people were there.

I noticed two levels of dress: casual and super-expensive suits.

As the process unfolded, I realized that those two levels of dress represented three levels of wealth.

The expensive suits were all worn by guys (and, yes, sorry, this was long ago, and everyone was a guy) who had high-paying jobs. Most would regard them as well off. They drove new, leased BMWs, etc. They were supercilious toward everyone because THEY were the only ones wearing expensive suits, shoes, and Rolexes.

The casual dressers represented two economic levels:

1. Those who could not afford expensive suits or Rolexes.
2. Those who had so much money they didn’t need to impress anyone.

At one point during the proceeding, I ended up in a room with four suits while I was dressed in jeans and wore a lightweight “Members Only” jacket. (You can tell this was long ago, right? Remember when those were cool?)

At first, they spoke only among themselves, treating the “obviously” poor guy like I couldn’t possibly matter. I let them go for a few minutes and then interrupted them for an important message on life. I told them how their expensive suits put them at a disadvantage because the only thing obvious in the room was that none of them were in the top tier financially.

They included me from then on.

To answer the question: The truly rich wear whatever they want. Only those who are still struggling to become truly rich are slaves to the “badges of honor” that they THINK demonstrate they are rich.

Listen up

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1mhpZlzSljk?feature=share

What is the rudest thing a person has ever done to you for being too kind?

I was at a Home Depot and saw this lady trying to lift a 90lb bag of cement from a flat cart into the trunk of her car. I said let me help you with that and grabbed the bag and put it in her trunk. She said I don’t need your damn help. I said sorry and grabbed the bag and put it back on the cart. As I was pulling out of the parking lot I saw that she had dropped the bag and it broke open all over the parking lot. I honked and waved.

What are some mind-blowing facts about the U.S. military?

During the Vietnam war President Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara came up with “Project 100,000,” and the idea was to kill two birds with one stone by drafting men who were developmentally disabled or just too stupide to be left into the army. It was to provide more men for the war effort and give the less fortunate a chance at being productive members of society.

There’s typically an IQ minimum of 80 points to serve in the US military, but the rule was loosened, and they started allowing in men with mental disabilities. These men became known a “McNamara’s Morons” and died at 5 times the rate of other Americans in the war.

You had men turning up to basic training that couldn’t even tie their own shoes and couldn’t even understand the basics like dressing the bed. Some of these soldiers didn’t even understand why they were utterly exhausted at the end of a run when they were full of energy at the start of the run.

When in combat training, none of the men could pass their physical training because they couldn’t grasp the idea of throwing a heavy training grenade in a high arc to reach the target that was 90 feet away.

A lot of the men were protected from battle and kept safe by sergeants who took pity on them, but a lot were sent into dangerous battles on the front line. Not only were some of these men a danger to themselves they also put their fellow soldiers in harms way by not being able to grasp the seriousness of what they were involved in.

For example, in one platoon a dozen men were injured when a live grenade was tossed at them by another soldier as a prank. The soldier in question didn’t have the brain function to understand how dangerous a grenade was.

The word McNamara Moron’s was a derogatory term used by many of the sergeants to describe many of the men that fell under their care. Although the experiment was a disaster, not all of the men drafted under this new legislation failed to learn and grasp the fundamentals of combat. Many went on to have distinguished careers, and many were awarded the “Medal of Honour.”

The story of Forrest Gump was inspired by McNamara’s soldiers and the bravery some of these men showed when faced with impossible odds.

What is the most intelligent one liner you have come across?

In my opinion…

A quiet little boy was putting up with the abuse of a foot taller, loud mouthed girl. The girl was berating him for being a Nerd.

The teacher heard what the girl was saying to the boy, and admonished her, “Karen! You should be nice to Billy! He is a straight A student, and someday he just might be your Boss.”

Billy looked at the teacher and quipped, “But I don’t want to be a Pimp!”

10 Habits of all successful people

1. They find a way to win, no matter the conditions or circumstances.
2. They manage their time well.
3. They are obsessed with self development.
4. They have self discipline.
5. They take responsibility for their actions and their results.
6. They set goals.
7. They read. A lot!
8. They take risks.
9. They keep going when they suffer setbacks.
10. They do what they love knowing that is the greatest reward.

street fashion china

What is the rudest thing you have ever told one of your parents?

When I had just turned 18, my mother came into my room with a birthday balloon. It was one of the nice fancy balloons. She was really happy to give it to me.

But I, being the selfish spoiled teenager reacted in anger.

“What! Is this it? I don’t get a cake or presents?!?!”

I will never forget the look of hurt and pain on my mother’s face. She turned around with tears in her eyes and quietly took the balloon from my room.

I knew instantly that I hurt her. I tried to run after her and apologize but the damage was already done.

I know she forgave me right away and gave me the balloon. But, you see, we were a low income family and balloons were rarely given. It was a gift I should have been proud of, but I turned it into something painful.

I learned a valuable lesson that day. You can’t take back words spoken in anger.

I will be 40 this year and my mother has been gone for 16 years and I can still see that look on her face as clear as if it had been yesterday.

I miss her.

I just do

Make America Go Away

The United States is like an abusive, narcissistic uncle that just knows that you will always need him; he is the indispensable uncle that just requires that you accept his authority by saying “uncle” otherwise he will sadly have to increase the level of abuse until you either “get the message” or die from the abuse. The vast majority of the world’s population understands this, whether it be the Latin Americans cheated out of democracy again and again, the Africans who had their post-independence dreams destroyed, the Middle Eastern modernizing and secular states that were eradicated, the Vietnamese that died in their millions to rid themselves of US occupation, the people of Gaza being murdered by US bombs and shells, or the Chinese, Russians and Iranians who face the wrath of the US for not understanding their place. The last thing they want is for the US to be “great” again, and they certainly do not see it as indispensable or a shining city on a hill, as the US political elite claim again and again in the form of religious-style mantras.

US politicians, policy makers and even international relations scholars accept this abusive, narcissistic narrative as they waffle on about a “Liberal International Order” where the US acts as the mafia-boss who makes the rules while not being subject to them, and bloviate about the decrepit “shining city” that must deliver its “gift” of liberal democratic capitalism to the world’s unwashed. Just as they did to the Amerindians in their three century war of extermination, ethnic cleansing and land theft, as they established the “new Jerusalem” of ethnic supremacy; personified by the racist bigot President Wilson who spun a good yarn about “freedom” while bringing the very opposite to not only many foreigners but also the US population. It was he who placed the velvet glove of sweet words about “Western culture” over the hard, racist fist.

So yes, the vast majority of humanity just want the US to go away and leave them to manage their own affairs. The problem with abusive narcissists is that they can turn into “family destroyers”, wiping out the rest of the family because they just know that the family (i.e. humanity) cannot survive without them. If they are to go away, then so must humanity. When those wanting a faster rate of change complain about the careful and patient diplomacy and actions of Russia, Iran and China, they must remember the dangerous lunatic that those nations are dealing with; one that can make humanity disappear with it if it so decides, in a global murder suicide. Anyone looking at the current psychopathic thrashings of the Israeli state must hold no flights of fancy about a US where a quarter of the population still believe in a heretical bible Armageddon fantasy, and its elite are wedded to their global dominance. Such lunatics have to be carefully managed and slowly subdued in order to reduce the possibilities of self-destructive and psychopathic rage-induced paroxysms.

Please Make America Go Away, as peacefully as possible.

The CORE FANTASY that drives women to ORGASM and WHY

What’s the best mistake you’ve ever made?

I needed a “C” to pass my college communications course.

If I didn’t get a “C,” I would fail to meet my college major requirements setting me back an entire semester.

Here’s the problem: The semester was over, and I had a D+.

My only hope was to email the teacher asking for a bump in my grade.

I wrote an email to her explaining how my past school performance warranted a higher grade and that not passing me would only hurt an ambitious student.

When I hit send, I realized I made a HUGE mistake.

I addressed her using another teacher’s name.

I tried to calm down, but then I remembered we’d spent half the semester covering email etiquette.

Shoot!

What did I do?

Two days later, she emails back.

First, she addresses the glaring mistake then says she bumped my grade up to a “C” to never have me as a student again.

I went out for drinks that night.

This is by far the best mistake I’ve ever made.

US is Militarizing Itself to Death, While China Emphasizes Cooperation.

https://youtu.be/BJx7xoR70h4

What did someone do that made you think they were really smart?

When I was in high school our physics teacher gave us a challenge that involved making a paper air plane of any shape. The only objective was to get it to fly as far as possible. I had some paper air plane making skills so I made the best plane I could and it flew pretty far.

One guy made the greatest, yet simplest paper airplane of all time. He stood there at the starting line with a regular piece of paper. Some classmates scratched their head while silently chuckling to themselves. Moments later he took the flat piece of paper, crumpled it up, and threw it down the hall way.

He beat the class with ease.

Some of the students got mad and said that he cheated.

The physics teacher said, “How so? I said it could be any shape. A paper ball is indeed a shape.”

He won the contest with flying colors.

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

I still regard this classmate as a genius.

Cats and Snakes

What are some mistakes you’ve made with money?

When I graduated from nursing school 10 years ago, I was flush with cash for the first time in my life. Within the span of a month, I went from having an after tax income of $600/month to an after-tax income of $1200 every 2 weeks.

I felt rich. I was 21 years old. I didn’t want to just save. I would invest.

I read a couple of books, opened a brokerage account, and proceeded to buy and sell stocks and call options. I made a lot of money quickly.

I concluded that I was going to be a stock market genius.

So, when I started losing money, I of course knew that it was a temporary setback. So I played, er, invested some more, and some more, and some more.

After a while, I had to admit to myself that I had a problem. I stopped after a couple of years. I had maybe lost $30K by then.

I repeated the same experiment at the tail end of med school. I decided to borrow an extra $20K and invest. This time, I was going to be disciplined. I was going to focus on buying call options on companies that were going to spin-off part of their assets into standalone companies. The idea was that the market was mispricing the combined companies and that the sum of the parts would be greater than the whole, after a spinoff. It was not an entirely crazy idea. I’d made money that way before.

Anyway, my roommate started making a ton of money in penny stocks of companies involved in the marijuana business. I was jealous of how quickly he was making money. I joined in. I lost another $10–15K. I pulled out. He continued playing. He made money for a while. Eventually, he lost more than he had made.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d lost about $50K in the stock market over the past decade. That has been my worst financial decision. I see it as tuition money that I paid in order to learn that I am emphatically not a stock market genius.

I’m a physician. My mistakes are going to be relatively costless to me. Please don’t try this at home.

How has China been investing in its chip industry, and what does it mean for the US government?

The U.S. has 2 choices. And Americans need to wake up to this reality to face the new world. China will always be independent from the U.S. in technology. In many cases it will from now onwards be ahead and with far better technologicallyDon’t than the US and the west. It is happy to share its benefits but it will never allow the U.S. and the West to ever threatened them again. Ever. Never Ever.

Don’t blame China. China were happy to play second fiddle till the despicable US foolishly thought that it can easily contain and control China in Chip technology for a generation. It took less than 3 years for China to catch up. It won’t look back. Now all the trillion of dollars shit it cost to do this shit will ll be wasted. If the U.S. never learnt then they can always lose more trillions. China don’t mind.

What does it mean for the U.S. government? It needs to know that the US has 2 choices. Either it work and I am cooperate with China and profit from China’s humongous market and manufacturing prowess or it loses it all including the access to the global south market representing som 120–150 nations around the world. The U.S. needs to make this decision. Americans need to learn humility and accept that it no longer can dictate to the world.

China will design its own chips, it will manufacture its own chips and it will sell to whoever wants to buy it and use it. It will do so at a faster rate and take less time, and make it a a lower cost and make it cheaper than the US and the west. That is what China always do and and the Chip Ban, the GPS threat and the ISS ban will simply motivate China to dominate all technology. Thanks USA

What do you like to ban, sanction, blockade from now onwards? I think China should stop the U.S. from using paper to clean their backside since China invented paper. Let the use their hands.

Was Steve Jobs really such an asshole like it is shown in the movie (2015)?

I worked at Apple in the 80’s and think the movie grossly underplays how much of an asshole he was.

I’ve worked with many billionaires in my career, and Jobs was the biggest asshole I ever met.

He would destroy people just for the fun of it. He would make it personal.

There were a few who managed to survive and even thrive, like Andy Hertzfeld.

Even on the original Mac team, there was a small number that Steve treated with respect, and the rest he treated like shit. It’s one reason the Mac team fell apart after the Mac shipped. Steve glorified about 10 of them; they were on the cover of Business Week IIRC. The rest he made clear were shit. They had worked their asses off and built a magical product, but Steve didn’t recognize them. So the glorified rock stars got big heads, and the others were deeply slighted. So the team fell apart.

It’s also true that at NeXT and then his return to Apple, Steve grew up and learned to treat people better. Steve v2 wasn’t exactly Mother Theresa, but he learned a lot of lessons and was much improved.

Have you ever had such a close call it makes your skin shiver everytime you think about it? If so, what happened?

Yes, I still shiver 10 years later. My husband and I were thinking of buying a lot in a new intentional community in Belize (think semi-rainforest, not beach). We stayed at the guest house for several days to tour and explore the area. Activities included canoeing on the beautiful river, hiking, learning about the local culture, etc… Now, recall there’s a river, hence big rocky, sandy, soil-y hills that sloped down to it. Also, no paved roads yet. One day we decided to do a driving tour in our all-wheel drive rental (as opposed to a 4WD we had reserved). You can guess where this is going. We came to the top of a steep incline, and to continue, there was no choice but to proceed down the other side. Approximately 10 feet to our right was a cliff that dropped steeply into a gorge and the river. (I was driving because my husband isn’t crazy about manual transmissions.) Then, the brakes failed. As we gained speed, rocks began to bump us closer to the edge. Honestly, we were thinking that was it- the end of the road for us. But in a moment of something- not brilliance for sure- maybe instinct, I threw the car into first gear. It slowed, then came to rest about 4 feet from the edge. Finally I screamed, just to release the tension. Somehow I didn’t leave a puddle in my seat.

If that wasn’t enough, seconds after we got out of the car, we heard the screams of several women who were crashing through the dense forest to our left. When the three women reached us, they were completely out of breath but managed to yell, “Wild pigs! Wild pigs!”. Just as all of us squeezed into the car for (protection, not escape!), we heard the pigs retreating and running back where they came from.

We did not buy the lot.

In a Vietnam movie, an officer warns a fellow soldier of an incoming airstrike laying “snake and nape” (nape is obviously Napalm). What does the ” Snake” refer too?

“Snake” or sometimes “snakes”, Snakeye bombs. Mk-80 Series bombs of various weights fitted with a high-drag devise to provide rapid deceleration upon release.

The special fins were held tight to the bomb casing until release, at which time they popped open to insure maximum horizontal separation between bomb and aircraft at detonation. Without the high-drag unit added, bombs could strike the ground and detonate under the aircraft. In some cases the explosion would bring down the delivering aircraft. At one time, this was called a “Low Blow”. Snakeyes were generally dropped at low to very low altitudes to enhance accuracy. Mk-80 series bombs without the decelerating tail unit were generally described as “Slicks”.

What is a split-second decision you made that changed your life?

When I was 15 years old I made a decision that to this day still baffles me. I spent the weekend with my good buddy putting a hot motor into his car. We finished the work on Sunday afternoon and my friend told me he would come by my house and get me later so we could go celebrate the car and new motor.

When he got to my parents house that evening I walked out to the driveway and made that fateful decision by telling my buddy that I had “homework” to do and wouldn’t be going with him.

Later that night my friend and two others hit a tree going about a hundred miles an hour. It killed my friend and the other guy in the front seat and put the backseat passenger in the hospital for a month.

To this day I have no idea why I didn’t go with them. I really didn’t have any homework. It just came into my head that day and I said it and that was it.

I would have been the guy in the front passenger seat that night.

What do you want to get off your chest anoymously?

When I had a daycare I had a four year old who went through a terrible phase of pulling hair. He didn’t just yank; he’d get his fingers tangled in there and twist and pull with his entire body. It was extremely painful. He once got hold of my hair and pulled some out.

I tried everything to stop him. I watched him like a hawk. I stopped him when he got that look and lunged for someone’s hair. His mom acknowledged the problem she was having with him at home with his two older sisters. She tried everything; we both did, but nothing stopped him.

One day he got hold of this cute little two year old’s hair. She was screaming in pain as I tried to detach his fingers. And I finally had had it. I grabbed his hair and pulled just as hard as I could.

He let go immediately and started crying. And he never pulled hair again.

His mom thought he had finally grown out of his phase. I never told her what I did. I didn’t abuse the kids I watched; never spanked them or yelled at them. I still feel guilty for what I did. He probably would have stopped on his own.

Has a family member ever done something that was unforgivable? What was it, and could you ever forgive them?

My sister. It was the day of my mother’s funeral after a very fast illness and sudden, unexpected death. My husband had run an errand for Dad. He was gone about an hour. During that hour, one sister (older, middle one of three) cornered me as I sat at the dining table. She spent most of that time telling me what a horrible person I was, listing every perceived mistake I had ever made in my life, all the times I had disrespected her, etc. When my husband came home he found me sobbing, curled into a fetal ball behind the guest bed.

That afternoon and for the rest of that weekend I would not be in the same room with her. I spent my time composing a long email listing every claim she had thrown at me and why each was wrong (or blown out of proportion). It was all I could emotionally manage.

She never even acknowledged the email, let alone apologize for being such a bully. I waited two weeks and sent another email, asking if she got the first one. She acknowledged that she did. That’s all. Just a “yes I got it.”

I have not spoken to her since. And because my other older (oldest) sister just stood there, I have barely spoken to her. Their emails are automatically filtered to trash. They don’t even know my phone number in Spain, where I now live. I no longer have any sibling photos on the “photo wall” in the hallway. I consider myself an only child. I will not return to the US for either of their funerals when the time comes. They are not welcome to visit me in Spain and I don’t even want them notified when I die.

When was the last time someone else had to experience a walk in your shoes moment?

My daughter is a single mom, and once a week I help her out. I pick up her kids, aged 8 and 7, from school and watch them until their mother comes home around 8 PM.

The older one is a lot like me. Introverted, shy, a bookworm who goes through a couple of books a week. I never have a bit of problem with him. We understand each other. We’ll watch TV or play a game of chess together.

The younger one is the social butterfly of the family. She goes outside and plays with the other kids in her neighborhood.

She’s also stubborn to a fault. Just like her mother at that age.

And one evening about a week ago she started getting defiant. Refused to do anything I asked. I was losing patience.

Just then her mother came home and things escalated. I watched the two most stubborn human beings I’d ever met lock horns for about half an hour. I’d seen this behavior before — we got it from her mother, my daughter, when she was that age.

“Dad, I am so sorry for all the trouble I put you and mom through when I was her age,” she told me.

I laughed. “It’s OK. You grew up to be a pretty good kid and I’m sure she will too.”

But she was right. Everything she had put us through when she was young and stubborn was now coming back on her.

Such, I suppose, is the circle of life.

What would Western people think when the Chinese ask them whether they’ve had dinner or not?

Thanks for the a2a. I have Chinese friends living all over the world. Some of them without fail ask me nearly every day if I have eaten yet. I have never thought it was anything other than kindness.

You see, I am from the Deep South in America. We Southern women show love and hospitality through our cooking. When I visit family, we’re having a meal and I have brought a dish. Or if they visit me, I’m feeding them and they probably brought something. I know my mother loves me because every time I visit, she makes tea exactly the way I like it. My brother knows I care because I make his favorite foods or desserts. My father is proud when I compliment his ability to grill a steak, and my sister requests my old-fashioned strawberry cake for her birthday. My daughter, she wants to make birthday cakes for everyone—whether it’s their birthday or not!

Food is a language, and that language expresses love, hospitality, kindness, care, and friendship. I believe Chinese people (as well as other cultures) understand this. I have always taken my Chinese friends encouragement to eat dinner or breakfast as a sign of their care for me, and I express the same care toward them. If they ever came to visit me, I wouldn’t let them leave my home without feeding them first. They don’t have to be fluent in English and I do not have to speak perfect Mandarin when it comes to sharing a meal together.

Why can’t Americans get access to the Chinese electric car market?

Americans foolishly screamed and shout that they are the leader of the free world without ever questioning if it is even remotely true or not! Please don’t be angry or upset if I help you guys since I understand you can pretend to be free or even dare says you are ordained by god to spread democracy and freedom but you Americans are one of the least free country on earth.

Let me help you good American. So first I like to explain how unfree you guys are.

35% of you cannot get health care when you fall sick! The most basic of freedom is the freedom to see a doctor and get cure when you fall sick. At least 100 million Americans don’t have this basic of basics of freedom.

Next 1 million Americans are homeless and don’t have another basic of basics of freedom. The freedom to have a roof over their head.! They have to live in makeshift tents on the streets.

20% of Americans don’t have 500 dollars to their name and don’t know where their next meal is coming from! Surely everyone must have the freedom to have a hot meal to stay alive!

USA with about 4% of world population has 25% of the worlds prisoners population! Think about this my American friends, prisoners are certainly. Not free. Many of them coloured people thrown into jail for the slightest reason. How on earth can you keep a straight face to say U.S. is the leader of the free world. No one know!

In many cities in the U.S. one cannot go to certain parts of the inner city like the Queens in New York. As crimes are rampant. So normal innocent and good Americans like you have to avoid that part of America! Surely freedom means you can go to anywhere or any part of America.

Kids and parents suffers the mental turmoils daily for just going to school. Many got shot to death in schools, public places, cinemas and even in Capitol Hill! Is that freedom? Even your kids are not free to go to school without a random mass shooter lurking with military grade weapons to murder them! Is this freedom?

If you are not fortunate to have a white skin you could be necked to death in the bright daylight of even driving a good car may be be shot to death just for suspected of stealing the car! Everyday you live in fear of a white policeman! Is that freedom to live? Freedom to avoid death at the racist inclination of the white racist? Surely not.

Freedom means you can choose who you really want to be your leader. Only 30% choose Biden. Or 35% choose Trump! Why are they your president? Your system allowed 0.8% of the richest and most influential people to choose your candidates! Surely this is not political freedom. This is far from democracy. How on earth can you call yourself the “beacon of democracy” who in a sane mind can claim that?

Oh today you country stop the Americans from having access to best 5G technology, Smartphone, best EV’s, drones and others for some geopolitical nonsense! Is this freedom? Freedom to be deprived? Let me help you understand. You are deprived from buying a 10 thousand bucks EV that need to be charged once a week but you are not allowed to! You cannot buy your Tesla like for half the price! Just to support your too big to fail auto industry paying 100 million bonus doing shit for good Americans!

But to me EVs and Drones are just the top of the iceberg of your draconian and suicide policies that takes away the freedom of Americans like you. Think about Jullien Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden! Freedom? American is anything but free.

What’s the best revenge you’ve gotten after being fired or let go from a job?

I wasn’t fired, I just quit a job with a window replacement contractor after finding full time premanant employment. I called to inform the man and give him two weeks notice. He cussed at me and slammed the phone down. I called him right back and asked him to send me payment for the previous weeks work and he ratteled on about how I installed those last windows wrong and that he would not be paying me what was owed and told me never to call again followed by a loud “click”. So, I tallied all my hours plus all the OT I’d worked but was never paid more than a flat hourly rate. I took this document to the owners of the business he had contracted with, explained the situation and said “I just want to give you the opportunity to resolve this before I take the matter to the labor department” (they had a local office). The owner said “Thank you” and said they’d take care of it. The man was in a back office supposedly waiting for a meet so I said “Great! We will just need to come to agreement on what he owes me” The man said “Nothing to worry about there, whatever you say”. I asked when I might expect payment from him and the man said, if this amount on your records is good, I’ll cut you a check right now and we’ll just deduct the funds from his contract payment. I never saw the man again but he was a hot head all the same and I could feel the burn of his rage as I drove away.

As for my ability to install windows… The man had previously took me aside, giving me a raise because, as he said “You’re the only one I have who can read a tape measure”.

What is the strangest item you’ve ever found when cleaning up after a party?

About 5 or 6 months ago, my girlfriend and I threw a little get together at our place for friends from work. I cooked dinner for everyone, and we just sort of made it buffet style. The whole affair was great fun and will make for great memories. After everyone had left Emily and I decided that we’d at least get the major stuff picked up, (the dishes and glasses into the dishwasher and the leftovers put into the fridge). While Em was finishing up in the kitchen I began moving things around in the front room, and there I found a pair of thong panties next to the couch. I picked them up and walk into the kitchen with them hanging on my finger. Em stood there looking at them and doing her best not to laugh. Because they were pink, I knew it wasn’t something that fell from the laundry basket by mistake. Neither of us likes pink.

To this day nobody has come forward to ask about them.

Best video Ever

Men, Listen up. It doesn’t matter (to anyone) if you win or lose. What matters is how you take it.

Two things to learn.

1, be strong regardless

2, pick your women better

Do you have a simple childhood memory that you could never forget?

Yes. It’s 1986, I’m 9 years old and I come downstairs to get ready for school. My dad is reading the paper and he says, “Hey Corey, what do you know about comets?”

I immediately spout off everything a space-addicted 9 year old kid can/should know about comets. My dad beams at me and tells me bedtime will be postponed.

Night falls and my dad comes home early. We get into his Ford Escort and drive to K-Bee toys where he buys me a pair of GI Joe binoculars just as it is closing.

I can still remember what they looked like in the packaging.

We drive to a subdivision that is under construction and park on a mound of dirt that is now someone’s home.

We both lay on the hood of that car and look at the stars. We talk about space. We talk about life. He tells me that the next time this comet passes by Earth he will be long gone, but he hopes I will watch it and remember what it is like to be a child staring at the night sky with his dad.

We never saw Halley’s comet that night. Our binoculars were too cheap, the light pollution was too strong, the comet was too far away. To be honest, I think I prefer it that way.

Because what I want to remember about that day has nothing at all to do with a comet.

There’s a great many things I wanted for my life. Some of them have come to pass, others never will. But above all I hope that, one day, I will sit on a mound of dirt as an old man. I will sit with the great love of my life and our children and our children’s children.

And we, all of us, will look at the stars. And maybe we’ll see a comet and maybe we won’t.

But we’ll look regardless and we will think of the ones we have loved.

Why is Apple manufactured in China? Would it be more expensive to manufacture in the United States?

Your U.S. workers demand 5 times Chinese workers income, and 10 times more benefits and are willing to world half as hard and are 75% as smart or well trained and your CEO expects and demand 100 times more income!

As such if you produce here Apple 15 must be marketed and sold USD5000 instead of less than USD1500! Ask your local customers, friends and colleagues will they buy Apple 15 or save USD4000 and buy a Chinese phone this is faster, better and cheaper.

You decide. Tim Cook knows the answer! China knows Tim Cook knows the Answer and the 7.999 billion people except you and your 6 racist friends need to ask!

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

I had a coworker who disliked me the moment she saw me. Idk why, but it seems to occur to me a lot, “hate at 1st sight”, lol! I am a very friendly person who has found that if I treat an unfriendly coworker respectfully and don’t react to their nastiness, they will eventually grow to like me.

Well, after nearly 2 years of her passive-aggressive behavior and snide remarks, I finally grew weary of her abuse. FYI she was almost my doppelgänger in every way. Nearly identical facial features, hair color, style, figure and dress size Misses 0. Acquaintances usually couldn’t tell us apart.

So, one day she came to work wearing a very cute summer dress. I complimented her on it.

She smirked and said, “Thank you! I’d tell you where I bought it, but there are no extra large sizes left.”

I responded, “Oh, darn! You got the last one!”

What is the strangest feedback you have received after a job interview?

About a decade ago, I got an Interview for a network administrator position. The phone interview went really well. I had a panel interview with an HR rep, some VP, and the manager I would have reported to. It goes great, and I get a conditional offer later that same day. They even offered me more than I asked for, though I suspect the recruiting agency may have padded my range to get a bigger commission (and I loved them for it). I sign the background check paperwork.

Two days later, I get a call from the recruiter saying that the offer was rescinded and that the recruiting agency can’t work with me any more. Ok, that’s really weird. My credit score is shot due to having been unemployed for a bit with bills piling up, but that’s not usually the kind of thing that gets a recruiting agency to drop you. I ask for details, but the recruiter will only say that I will receive communication by mail.

A couple weeks later, after I had finally accepted a lower-paying offer elsewhere, a letter comes in the mail with a copy of my background check. I read over it and see convictions for armed robbery, attempted murder, aggravated assault, and a bunch of other stuff I don’t remember … except remembering I’ve never been arrested or charged for anything like that, let alone convicted. Well, I look at the paperwork l, and what do you know. The first and last name are correct, but the middle name and date of birth are wrong. It’s almost as if they Googled my first and last name and just read the results of whoever popped up first.

I kind of wish they had done a bit more reading, because it would have been hard for him to attend interviews seeing as he was literally in prison while I was in their office.

I did point out the error to the recruiting agency … and never heard back.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

Originally Answered: What is the best case of “you just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

A woman called my newsroom crying. Nobody wanted to deal with her. So they sent her to me. She was crying and hard to understand, but the basic story went this way…

She had bought a used car. She needed it badly to get to the THREE jobs she held to support her children by herself. No husband. Less than two weeks after buying the car, it broke down. She called the dealer who had told her it had a 30-day warranty.

He told her he couldn’t help. But, she told him, you said it had a 30 day warranty. His response — too bad. When she complained, he told her — “lady, you’re dealing with the big boys now.”

She was crying as she told me this. I was — to put it mildly — angry. My response to her — let me call you back.

I called him. I explained the problem and when I did not get what I considered a good response, I “explained” things to him:

1. He needed to respond appropriately to her and solve the problem.
2. If he did not respond appropriately, I would have my entire investigative news team look into his operation.
3. He did not like that.
4. Cautionary note here: My response – YOU picked the wrong person to fight with, and no, NOW, you’re playing with the Big Boys, expletives to follow…

He took back her car. Gave her a slightly newer model without any problems. She called crying and thanked me. I may have cried a bit too.

PS – I didn’t do the story about him. I wonder if I should have?

Hey western news media…China is amazing!

https://youtu.be/kQdRUfErUpI

On Jan. 1, 1945, Hitler sent 1000 planes of the Luftwaffe to destroy airbases of the Allies to protect his troops fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. Why was it a failure?

Operation Bodenplatte, also known as the “New Year’s Offensive” or “Unternehmen Bodenplatte”, was a large-scale aerial offensive launched by the German Luftwaffe against Allied airfields in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg on 1 January 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge. The operation was intended to cripple Allied airpower and support the German ground forces in the Ardennes region.

Despite achieving some initial surprise and causing some damage to Allied aircraft, Operation Bodenplatte was ultimately a failure. The Luftwaffe suffered heavy losses, losing over 250 aircraft compared to Allied losses of around 130. The operation also failed to achieve its main objective of crippling Allied airpower, as the Allies were able to quickly recover from the attacks.

There were several reasons for the failure of Operation Bodenplatte:

• Poor planning and coordination: The operation was poorly planned and coordinated, with many of the Luftwaffe units involved not receiving their orders until the day of the attack. This led to confusion and delays, and the attacks were not as coordinated as they could have been.
• Allied air superiority: The Allies had achieved air superiority over the skies of Western Europe by the end of 1944, and the Luftwaffe was no match for the combined strength of the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces.
• Adverse weather conditions: The weather on the day of the attack was poor, with low clouds and fog, which made it difficult for the Luftwaffe bombers to find their targets and for the Luftwaffe fighters to intercept Allied aircraft.
• Allied intelligence: The Allies had broken the German codes and were aware of the planned attack. This allowed them to take evasive action and scramble their fighters to intercept the Luftwaffe bombers.

As a result of its failure, Operation Bodenplatte marked the beginning of the end of the Luftwaffe as an effective fighting force. The operation resulted in the loss of irreplaceable experienced pilots and aircraft, and the Luftwaffe was never able to regain its strength.

Why is the top bunk considered disrespectful in jail/prison?

A top bunk is not “disrespectful”…. It is its own special fucking misery in a world of miseries…

Having to sleep in the top rack forces the occupant into constantly climbing over and disturbing the occupant of the lower bunk, denies the top bunk the use of “Privacy Curtains”, is fully exposed to the ventilation system which will always be too hot or too cold, is fully exposed to the lights, which can often be on 24 hours a day, prevents easy access to possessions stored under the bottom bunk, it forces the top bunk occupant into waking up the lower bunk every time he has to use the toilet or sink, and cuts down on the number of places the top bunk occupant can sit, since sitting on someones bunk without their permission is an act of disrespect…

I have seen more SERIOUS fights between cellies over “bunk territory” than any other issue… I’m talking about fights when one or both combattants require hospitalisation and a trip to The Hole…

Truth

Have you ever seen something in a restaurant that caused you to leave in disgust?

My wife and I were out to eat with some friends. We were having a good time and enjoying ourselves when all of a sudden this horrific smell wafted towards us. The unmistakable smell of baby shit.

Eww, but whatever. Babies shit. It happens.

However, what happened next left us speechless and without appetite. The man with the baby was at a large round table with several other people. When they smelled it too, there was the standard, “Ooops, someone made a poopy” comments towards the baby.

The man picked the baby up, pushed some plates and glasses out of the way, and proceeded to open the offending diaper right there in the middle of the dining room. The smell was bad to begin with, but once he opened that thing up, it was nauseatingly bad. We had just received our meals, but there was no way we were eating anymore.

People around the restaurant were staring at the table, but no one at that table seemed to think anything of it. They were going about their conversations as though there wasn’t a shit-covered child on the table. One of the tables next to us went up to the bar to complain; the bartender said “That’s Jane’s family, she’s the manager. I’ll go get her.”

Jane came out of the back with an irritated look on her face. When the customer complained, she loudly said, “Oh, it’s not that bad. He’ll be done in a minute.” and walked over to the infant and made baby noises at it while the dad finished changing the diaper.

We and a few other tables all got up and headed for the door. “Hey, you didn’t pay!” was shouted after us. One of our companions turned and said to the manager, “You call the cops, I’ll call the health department. I’m sure they’d love to hear about this.” and we left.

I used to really like that restaurant, now I can’t even drive past it without gagging a little.

Seriously, how can people be so fucking disgusting?

It’s true

Have you ever stood up to a bully at the workplace and they backed off?

Originally Answered: Have you ever stood up to a bully at the workplace and they back off?

Yes indeed. Two years ago, we had a hurricane. I had no food, no lights , no power. The next morning, I still went to work.

My manager raised his voice and was abusive. He wanted to push his work on to me, but I had no power, and didn’t see the email the night before. I spoke up to him and said he was totally unrealistic. He was stunned, like no one had ever spoken back to him.

The manager told the director, and the director texted me two hours later, getting harsh, saying “I know you have power supply issues, but the three of us need to meet“.

Ten minutes later, I sent a letter to HR complaining of harassment and abusive speech. I copied the email to an executive three levels above my director. The executive texted me back and said to keep him informed.

HR saw the executive’s email response, and the HR director called me within 40 mins of getting the email. I told her I wanted a management change. She switched me to a new set of directors an hour later. The new directors are professional and wonderful to work for.

The main point: Bully bosses don’t back down right away on their own. You must save yourself by contacting a boss two levels above your boss. Two levels, not one level. Use email letters to complain. Letters put everyone on notice, and they’re like a hand grenade.

Imagine if a guy said this…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bcAUkaXUJw4?feature=share

What is the most awkward conversation you have had with your parents?

I am going to win.

When I was about 17 years old, my dad walked in on me and my then-boyfriend having sex.

The house I lived in at the time was located directly across from my high school. I was enrolled in a lot of sports, as was my boyfriend. Our practices often didn’t start until a half an hour or so after school ended, so most days we had a little bit of time to, um, kill. This particular day, I thought my dad would be at work. We raced to my house, went to my bedroom, and went at it. A few minutes later, without warning, my dad did the thing he always did – knock, then immediately open the door. Seriously? What was the point of knocking? I’ll never understand.

So there I was. His precious baby, naked with a boy. I did the only thing I could think of, which was to do a little *roll* off the bed, and then a second *roll* to hide myself underneath my bed. Leaving my bare-bummed boyfriend to the nightmare above me.

The only words my dad said was, “get dressed.”

I did not go to practice that day. Instead, I had to have dinner with my dad, alone. I couldn’t even look him in the eye. I was mortified.

We tried to have small talk???? “How was your day?” “Fine, yours?”

Worst. Day. Of. My. Life.

Bringing home the bacon

What is the craziest thing you heard while waiting in a line?

Two guys, college-age were yapping and I heard them say, it would be nice if the old f***er would let us go before him.

I looked up ahead of me in line and there were two young women, and then a man and wife and I didn’t see the advantage of them wanting to let these guys go before them, and they didn’t look all that old, then I realized that they were talking about me.

So I reached in my basket and took a shirt I was buying and pulled the tag off it, so when it was my turn and I didn’t let the sh**heads but in line, I left the shirt for last after taking my time unloading all the merchandise and striking up a nice conversation with the checker that always stalls a little and then she got to the shirt.

By this time the guys were really pissed. She said sir, your shirt doesn’t have a tag, let me call someone and get a price for you. I looked back with a grin. and said, you just got old f**kered.

An opening…

What is the biggest snub you received from a family member?

I got married in 2008, my sister in 2009. My wedding was lovely and small but I felt like it meant a lot. My sister got married a year later. My Aunts bestowed upon her a family necklace (something borrowed and old) that was blue, and a simple flower bracelet for her something new.

They had done none of that for me.

I cried for 3 days. Like my marriage didn’t matter at all.

The cat is fast

What is a split-second decision you made that changed your life?

I was nearly killed in a multi-vehicular accident when I was 25. The first police officer on the scene pronounced me dead, but, luckily for me, there was a nurse on hand to confirm that, while I was gravely injured and in shock (which means that you don’t have a pulse in your arms and legs because your blood pressure is so low), I was actually alive.

By the time the ambulance got there, I was conscious and screaming from the pain of my injuries. I had broken both my legs, my pelvis and three vertebrae (they were not displaced), but the source of my agony was a dislocated knee joint. My knee-cap was 6 to 8 inches north of where it should be and my upper and lower leg bones over-lapped by 3 or 4 inches.

It hurt. A LOT.

So, they cut me out of my car and got me into the ambulance and rushed me to the hospital. I was in bad enough shape that they called ahead so an Orthopedist was waiting for me. Unfortunately for me, he was a newly minted doctor fresh out of his residency.

When he came into the exam room he:

• did not ask my name
• did not introduce himself
• did not examine me
• did not look at my chart
• did not attempt to take the pulse in the ankle of the mangled leg

What he DID do was say, “Oh, that leg has to come off.” Those were literally the first words out of his mouth.

Now, my sister is a nurse and my mother wanted me to be a doctor, so I knew that he should have at least looked at my chart and attempted an exam. I was so angry at his utter lack of bedside manner that my immediate response was, “If I lose my leg, you’ll lose your license.”

Honestly, I don’t know who was more surprised, him or me. Admittedly I was having a REALLY bad day, but normally I would never say anything like that to anyone.

Now, what I didn’t know at the time was that in 95% of the cases where a person has a dislocated knee joint the way I did, the femoral artery that supplies blood to the lower leg is crushed beyond repair. But I was extraordinarily flexible, and luckily, my femoral artery was NOT damaged.

So after a short but pointed argument and a bit of malpractice (on the doctor’s part), my injury was reduced and I got to keep my leg below the knee. It has taken a lot of surgery to fix the damage and more than a decade of physical therapy to relearn how to walk but I can walk and 99% of people won’t notice my limp.

So that is how a split-second decision changed my life. If I had let the doctor amputate, no one would have known that my artery hadn’t been crushed and I’d have a prosthesis and be buying my shoes one at a time. I thank goodness every day that I said what I did to that insufferable jerk.

Women and their tests…

Heaven on Seven Chicken Voodoo Rigatoni

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons plus 1/4 teaspoon Angel Dust Cajun Seasoning
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced yellow onion
• 1/2 cup diced red onion
• 1/3 cup thinly sliced green onion, white and green parts
• 2 tablespoons Roasted Garlic Puree
• 1/3 cup diced celery
• 1/2 cup seeded, diced green bell pepper
• 1/2 cup seeded, diced red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup seeded, yellow bell pepper
• 1/3 cup seeded, diced poblano chile
• 1/4 cup seeded, diced cubanella pepper
• 1/4 cup seeded, diced banana pepper
• 1 tablespoon seeded, minced Fresno chile
• 1 1/2 teaspoons seeded, minced habanero chile
• 1 teaspoon seeded, minced jalapeno
• 1/2 teaspoon minced serrano chile
• 1/2 teaspoon seeded, minced fingerhot chile
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon Hungarian paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon Spanish paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon chile powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup peeled and diced ripe banana
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 3/4 cup pineapple juice
• 1/2 cup mango juice
• 1/2 cup papaya juice
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 tablespoon Key lime or regular lime juice
• 1 tablespoon Hot as a Mutha hot pepper sauce or habanero sauce
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
• 2 pounds dried rigatoni pasta, cooked according to package directions

Instructions

1. Season the chicken with 2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning.
2. In a 5 quart Dutch oven, preferably enameled cast iron, heat the oil over high heat. When oil is hot but not smoking add the chicken and brown for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Stir in the yellow, red and green onions and the garlic puree cook for 2 minutes.
4. Add the celery, peppers, and chiles cook until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes.
5. Add honey, sugars, paprikas, chile powder, allspice, coriander, turmeric, salt, black and white peppers, red pepper flakes, remaining 1/4 teaspoon Cajun seasoning, and stir for 2 to 3 minutes to coat meat and vegetables with the seasonings.
6. Mix in the banana, tomato sauce, water, coconut milk, juices and hot pepper sauce. Bring to a boil reduce the heat to medium low and simmer uncovered for 1 hour.
7. When ready to serve, stir in the butter until well blended and toss with rigatoni in a large bowl.

Attribution

Posted by Recipethyme at Recipe Goldmine 8/18/2001 5:26 pm.

Source: Chef Jimmy Bannos – Heaven on Seven Restaurant, Chicago

Humanity on the earth

What survival instincts does a battle hardened soldier have on the battlefield? I mean, what is “the smell” made of?

While we usually call it the “sixth sense”, the military term for this phenomenon is “premonition and intuition”.

Soldiers who fought for a long time on the battlefield have often developed sharper senses. Their bodies and minds are adapting to a survival situation:

After you have been away from any artificial light sources for a while, your night vision will improve. Being constantly exposed to enemy fire, your ability to see and recognize objects at a long distance increases.

You will be able to fine tune your hearing so that you’ll will be more perceptible to all “man made” sounds, for example tank engines or sounds of movement in the underbrush.

There are even soldiers who are capable to smell human feces from long distances away.

And some soldiers go even further: they develop an elevated state of mind, where their subconsciousness is able to connect the tiniest sensory inputs with the soldier’s vast experience. This way, soldiers can “foresee” future events on the battlefield, can “sniff out” ambushes and “know” where the enemy has put the mines.

This is not a new phenomenon, though there are many accounts from WWII and the Vietnam war where soldiers acquired extraordinary perception skills. Unfortunately, the military often dismissed them as “spooky stories”.

I was able to acquire a limited set of “extrasensory perception” skills myself. Interestingly, while I was fighting in the Bosnian war, I wasn’t really able to develop above average senses. As the war went on, I became better in anticipating enemy positions, or mined areas, but this was purely because of my ever growing experience and improved knowledge of our enemy’s tactics. When you’ve seen the enemy attacking a couple of times, always in the same way, it’s really not too difficult to figure out what their next steps will be.

During the war in Kosovo, however, I went one step further. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that we were nonstop in combat. There were no clear front lines (like in Bosnia) and everyday was a fight for survival that demanded from us to be 100% alert and sharp.

I remember one particular day: it was the third day of a massive enemy attack and I was manning a position together with a comrade. We were expecting that the enemy’s main assault would happen just in front of our position. We were in a small house and the moment I entered the building I felt that something was wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on it, though, but an inner voice told me: “this place is no good!”

We waited, but nothing happened. The fighting had started on our right flank, but in front of us, everything was still calm. All of a sudden, I told my buddy: “Let’s go somewhere else!” He trusted my word and didn’t argue with me and so we moved to another house that was a couple of hundred meters up the road.

On our way, we passed two of our comrades who were waiting in another position. I took a short look at their spot and told them to move fifty meters up the road to another place. I didn’t know why I said it, but they obeyed my order and moved immediately.

My new position was in a big three story house, only hundred meters to their right side, and so I was able to keep an eye on them. After an hour, the enemy attacked us with tanks. I shot twice with an RPG, but the enemy was still advancing. Our house had a very safe place in the basement and more and more soldiers came from other places to find refuge there.

Our last position, the “big house”, seen from enemy side. Picture taken after the war.

Outside the house, bullets and shells were flying from every direction. Suddenly my alarms went off again. I stood up and said: “Let’s go! Now or never!” and we all exited through a small window at the back of the house.

When I got outside the house, the air was red from the dust of the houses’ red bricks. Trees were hit by artillery shells and one fell just one meter in front of my feet. I waved and screamed at the two comrades that I had left nearby and told them to join us. Somehow we all made it to a safe place.

What I found out later was that an artillery shell had hit the exact place where I had my first position, just minutes after we decided to leave the place. The shell went straight through the roof and would have killed us immediately.

The two soldiers that I had asked to change their position came to thank me. They told me that only one minute after they were in their new position, an artillery shell had hit the old one.

And the last man who had left the big house from the small window told us that the moment he was leaving the building, a tank round had hit the room in the basement where we had stayed the whole time.

Of course we had a lot of luck that day, but there was more to it. After having spent a long time in combat, I was able to trust my instincts, my gut feeling, although it didn’t make any logical sense. From a military point of view, the positions that we had been using that day were carefully chosen and the best possible choices. Still, some inner voice told me to abandon them.

There were more occasions where my extrasensory perception skills (or those of my comrades) were either saving our lives or made us better soldiers. Especially during night combat, we often “knew” where each of our soldiers was positioned and what they were doing, without being able to see them. We were able to move without wasting time figuring out where everyone was left and we could shoot without hitting one of our own people. This made us better and more lethal soldiers.

A very interesting article on this subject: The U.S. Military Believes People Have a Sixth Sense

Nice Guys are NOT men

Jerry’s Cajun Cafe & Market
Louisiana Seafood Gumbo

Yield: about 8 to 10 gallons of gumbo. Can cut recipe in half to reduce.

Ingredients

• 2 cups vegetable oil
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups diced onions
• 2 cups diced celery
• 2 cups diced bell pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 cups chopped green onions
• 3 gallons water
• 1 pound fresh or frozen okra
• 1 (28 ounce) can Ro*Tel diced tomatoes or 2 (10 ounce) cans
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 2 ounces crab boil
• 8 dashes Tabasco sauce
• 8 dashes Louisiana hot sauce
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 ounce Paul Prudhomme’s Seafood Magic seasonings
• 1 ounce Cajun seasoning
• 1 ounce dried basil
• 1 ounce dried thyme
• 3 pounds peeled and deveined shrimp (70 to 90 count)
• 1 pound claw crab meat
• 2 whole crabs, cleaned and halved
• 1 pint fresh oysters
• 1 ounce file or to taste

Instructions

1. First, you make a roux. In a large, heavy stock pot on medium heat, add 2 cups vegetable oil and bring to temperature.
2. Add flour gradually. It will sizzle when it is at the right temperature. Using a whisk, stir roux constantly. Stir until it reaches a peanut butter color. When it reaches the desired color, add the onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic and 1 cup of green onions (in that order) until all ingredients are cooked down or caramelized.
3. Add water, okra, Ro*Tel tomatoes, seasonings and bring to boil. After it reaches boiling, reduce heat to low and let simmer for at least an hour.
4. Add seafood and continue to cook on medium heat for about 15 to 20 minutes.
5. Taste for seasoning and texture.
6. Add file to thicken.
7. Stir in the remaining green onions and simmer for a few more minutes.
8. Serve as a soup with a little steamed rice.

Attribution

Source: Jerry’s Cajun Cafe & Market – Pensacola, Florida

Time Blindness

What’s a childhood secret you’ve never told your parents about?

Well… it took me 20 years before I revealed my secret. But here goes.

When I was 17, I had a 1971 Dodge Dart Swinger.

(Photo credit: Category Archives: Vintage Review).

It was older than I was. The biggest issue was, the floor pans were pretty rusted out (and the Flintstones jokes that came with it). I could see the road flow by if I looked down under my feet and pedals. Water would splashed up when it rained.

So I try to fix it. Some rolled stainless steel wouldn’t stay down right. Riveting just made more holes. And I gave it a break. Later that afternoon, I noticed my mom’s cookie sheet. It was almost the exact right size! And it wouldn’t roll up. A few clips with tin snips, and some epoxy, I had the floor of my car (on my side) waterproof!

Later that week, my mom wanted to make cookies. I, of course, had no idea where her cookie sheet was.

I think the worst part was me “helping” her look for 5 or 8 minutes.

A few summers ago, and 20 or so years later, I finally came clean about it. Time heals all wounds, and she wasn’t too upset.

Neocons Still Can’t Believe Russia Defeated Them

What did you do as a child that you hid from your parents?

I was quite a lonely boy, and longed for a relationship. On holiday, I met a girl who seemed interested in me, and we had fun: we walked, climbed, sailed together and did a lot of talking. At the end of the holiday, we exchanged addresses and corresponded for a year or so. I kept ALL her letters.

One day, she wrote to tell me about her new boyfriend. He was wonderful (apparently.) Being rather immature, I felt betrayed. I had no reason to feel this way, we were only friends and I should have felt glad for her, but hey. Teenage angst.

I took all her letters, threw them into my metal litter bin, and set fire to them.

IN MY BEDROOM.

I had the window open, and there was no-one else in the house, so that was cool. I remember the IMMENSE satisfaction watching those letters burn.

When the bin cooled, I decided to bury the ashes, and with them my heart. I lifted the bin – and there was a perfect bottom-of-the-bin shaped hole in the polyester carpet.

My father was fairly physical in terms of punishment, so my heart did not just sink: it scuttled itself. I knew that Armageddon would ensue were this to be discovered.

In panic, I looked around and realised that my room was a perfect oblong. The bin-shaped burn was in the left corner, my bed in the opposing right corner.

I have (up to this day!) never worked so hard or fast in my life. I removed the furniture from my room, managed to lift the carpet, desperately salvaging the carpet tacks, turned the carpet around, nailed it back down and replaced the furniture, with the bed covering the offending burn.

My parents wondered why I suddenly announced my decision to assist with the housework by taking responsibility for all upstairs vacuuming and cleaning. They were surprised but pleased: I was desperate to keep my crime concealed.

I am now 59. My father has passed away, but my mother still lives in the family home. And the burn is still under my old bed. 45 years later, my crime remains hidden.

DO NOT TELL MY MUM!

What are the most interesting facts about human behavior?

1. Pretty people are automatically more acceptable by people. Average looking people have to do something above average to get accepted and ugly people have to do something extraordinary!

It is because the human mind appreciates physical beauty and repels ugliness because of immaturity of mind. But in the end what matters is inner beauty or ugliness and that wiseness comes with experience and time.

2. Leaving your girlfriend/boyfriend seems much tougher than leaving your friends.

It is because romantic relations induces strong pheromones secretions in your body that cause you to develop strong bonding feeling with your partner. It is not the case you have with friends and hence breaking a strong bond seems tougher.

3. People who get goosebumps frequently while listening to music have a special connection with it. These people listen to music very frequently and their work capacities and capabilities are partly dependent on it. If they are barred from listening to music for 1 month, their productivity will fall.

It is because the hormone adrenaline increases in their body while listening to the music and that causes more activation, more awakening and better functioning of their body. Plus, it keeps the mind calm.

4. The more attention you give to a person, the more attitude he/she will show you and the less crap he/she will give about you.

It is because as the humans get more attention, their minds tend to think that they are very important and good looking and the person who is giving them attention needs their company desperately and is not equal to them at all.

5. Money instils confidence and happiness in majority of people. It increases their desire to work.

It is because anything (money) that is able to complete every single desire of people is very much acceptable to them as human desire are insatiable.

What do you do when you realize your teacher is wrong about something? Do you correct them or just let it go?

In 5th grade I had a 1st year teacher, Ms. Craig, who was amazing and one of the reasons I went into education, but I digress. One day we were studying the United States and where all of the states were. I noticed that she had switched Missouri and Minnesota. I remember thinking – that is not right. you see my dad is from Minnesota and my family lived there for a short spell when I was 4. I decided, to ask her if that is really where Minnesota located. I will never forget her reply – You know Denise, I am not totally confident that it is let’s check. So in front of the entire class, she lifted the map she had written on to look at the map that contained all of the States written on it. Well, look at that Denise is correct, I made a mistake and mixed up two states!

Miss Jana Craig if you are out there and can read this, you made a very strong impression on a 5th grader in the very first class you taught. You were the BEST teacher ever! Thank you for making me love school.

Why is it that some high-IQ individuals turn out to be failures in the end?

Because you need the required secondary powers to succeed.

The most important required secondary power is to be born in an upper class family. Most of those high IQ people who succeed, have born with silver spoon on hand.

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The reason is trivial. Nobody makes it alone nor in a vacuum. To be successful, you need to get socialized with right people, to know the right people, to be encouraged, to have social support, you name it. The less you have those, the less likely you are to succeed.

Then there is the thrice-goddamned communication range. If you are a high-IQ person in a middle class environment, you are likely to be branded as a weird kid, a nerd, a geek, an egghead and bullied and ostracized. You learn very quickly to hide your intelligence to stay below the radar lest you are torn into pieces. And God help you if you are born in a working class family – you will be stampled as a weirdo, a misfit, an outcast, and eaten alive.

For a middle class and working class high IQ individuals, the best hopes are military and STEM branches. Military because militaries are meritocracies, and high IQ is an asset once you are past buck sergeant or lieutenant. STEM branches, because they are difficult and require brainpower, and you are likely to get networked with similar-minded youngsters.

Forget the rags-to-riches fairy tales. They are just that – fairy tales invented to deceive the gullible and to make the proles to blame themselves for their failures.