Over the last couple days, I punished myself by watching two recorded streaming TV shows on the web. One was supposed to be a training. The other was supposed to be about stock market analysis. Both were painfully boring.

TRAINING SHOW

The training show was awful. It was for one of my Internet businesses. The guy running the 1 hour 15 min show spent the first half hour saying over and over, "We're just waiting for everyone to get checked in."

This wasn't a flight. We weren't at a hotel. It was a show! Shows, at least in the world I live in, start at a certain time and end at a certain time - and they try to have something of substance in the middle.

Once he got underway, there wasn't much to watch. He rambled and kept looking at the computer screen to his left to see what was going on in the chat window. He answered a few questions. Watching a guy read conversations in a chat window is a thousand times more boring than watching a snail walk to Vegas from Phoenix. At least you have the pending drama of the snail tripping or getting run over.

Honestly, there were about 5 minutes of meat in the show. Since it was recorded, he could have cut out all the BS and showed a nice, concise video. I'll think twice before watching him again.

TRADING SHOW

More of the same on the Trading Show. This snoozer featured two guys BS'ing for 40 minutes about things that I guess you had to have been watching all the other shows previously recorded to even figure out. I clicked on another tab on my browser and just listened to them ramble. It was like break time at the office. Again, no substance.

By the time they got to what the show was supposed to be about, I was engaged in something else, but I let them babble, five tabs down on my browser.

Besides the fact that I didn't have all day to just sit there for 90 minutes, waiting for someone to make a point, they had all kinds of distractions going on. Cell phones were ringing, the "whooop, whooop" of iChat messages kept coming through my speakers, other things kept beeping and dinging in their office. I was tricked into looking around at all of my screens to see what was pinging me in the head.

The topper was their expert buddy who called in on the phone. Feedback. Bad feedback. Everything the host said, was repeated a second later. Everything. So now, he's double boring.

A DIFFERENT TIME

When I worked in radio, we had a rule, "Dead-Air means you're fired." It was the rule at every station I worked for. If you were broadcasting silence, you got fired. Period. And if you left the microphone on when the music was playing and your mindless conversations with the news guy or phone calls from listeners went out over the air, you got fired. When I was a comic, you had 10, 15, 30 or 45 minutes to do your show. It had to be tight or you got fired. You couldn't tell three jokes, then BS on the phone for 5 minutes or play with the microphone cord and then resume. The club manager would have you hauled away by security, right from the stage, if you did that.

Now, you can put out pure crap, piddle around fixing technical problems, make coffee, put money in your parking meter and leave the web cam going. And the poor sods who tuned in are anxiously waiting for the meal. The surreal part is you can record it and broadcast your unedited bumps in the dark for future viewing.  I have no idea who's watching this stuff.

Are there people that have 90 minutes to spend waiting for someone to tell them 15 minutes of information?

I can't afford the time.

Now, anyone can make a show. Anyone can blog... don't get me started there... grammar? spelling? paragraphs? All MIA.

Anyway. I think someone needs to go smash a few of these webcams until these people learn that if they're going to do a show, treat your audience with respect. We have lives. We're tuning in to supposedly hear your genius. Well, if you only have 10 minutes of genius, that's OK. Spit it out in 10 minutes. Don't make me watch you figure out how to put your pants on so that the zipper is on the right side. When you get it right. And you're sure you got it right, ping me.

Roger Blazic

www.rogerscircle.com

Earlier today, I was posting a somber missive regarding my recollections of Farrah Fawcett passing this morning. Suddenly, while watching Cramer's Mad Money on CNBC, a report came in that the King of Pop, Michael Jackson (50) had died. I checked a few other stations, CNN & FOX, and they were still reporting that he had apparently suffered a heart attack, slipped into a coma and was rushed to UCLA Medical Center.

Now, other news media outlets are catching up to the story. MJ is dead.

Not a good day for stars.

Michael Jackson (1958-2009) and I had a strange kinship because we shared the same birthday, August 29. He was born in 1958, I preceded him by 2 years. Being Virgos, I always had an eye out for what he was doing. Sharing the same birthday and being completely different somewhat debunks any validity to Astrology.

Even as weird as his personal life and physical transformations were, he was a true entertainment legend. His "Thriller" album still holds the top spot for best selling album of all-time.

If you pushed aside the circus he lived off the stage, you cannot deny his amazing talent. He was the consumate performer. He danced, he sang, he was charming - you could not ask for more. His videos are still some of my favorites.

News moves fast. His Wikipedia entry has already been updated to reflect his passing on this 25th day in June.

He was planning a major tour to launch in just a few weeks. Yesterday a London blog site was announcing that only a few tickets were left. It's tragic that he had to pass before the tour, even more tragic that he didn't get to live a full life.

It's so odd to think of MJ as being 50. He never seemed to grow old. In my mind, he never aged much older than 30. His energy belied his age. There was never a time I found him boring. He will be missed.

Michael, little buddy... you gave us a lot to remember... even through the weirdness... you were an amazing man.

Roger Blazic

www.rogerscircle.com
 

Any place where people interact has to have rules of engagement for it to function properly. At a store, you have rules that govern transactions. A price is established for a product. If you want to walk out of the store with that product, you have to pay the price. Behavior at a football game under the influence of several beers would not be acceptable at church or a business meeting. In a courtroom, there are very well defined rules as to who may speak and when. To ensure fairness, the judge has to know the rules and enforce them.

Some online forums have rules regarding etiquette, decency, copyright - and they are enforced. It's obvious that Xanga has no rules, other than the Terms of Service (TOS). There may be something in the TOS about prejudicial remarks, racist comments, etc. and these are in place so serious abusers may be dismissed because they violated a particular rule. However, when it comes to interacting through posts and/or comments there are no rules. If there are, I've never seen them.

Authors of posts tend to try and make a point. Some of the authors are not skilled writers and don't follow conventional writing rules, like grammar, punctuation, use of paragraphs, etc. I don't want to be too critical on that front because everyone has to start somewhere. I think it's admirable because anyone who dares to throw out an idea on a public forum has a bit more courage than the average observer of life. In time, their writing should improve. At least, let's hope so.

However, when you put ideas out in public, you also grant the right for others to challenge those ideas, especially if there is a Comment box at the end of your asertion.

Recently, I read a post that was not great writing, but the point the author made was extremely on point and relevant. One of the people who commented on her post about the media and economics said that she was wrong, and then he offered his credentials as that of a student who had taken several university economics classes, including one at the Master's level. In my opinion, his comment was completely wrong. I started my retort by saying that he might consider getting a refund on his tuition if that is what he is being taught at his university. And then I proceeded to state my case about why I felt he was wrong. I challenged his ideas. I left him/her alone, personally, without leveling personal attacks.

This morning, when I was checking email notices on comments, I read his/her comeback to me. It started off stating that I never answered his question. What question? I haven't taken the time to go through all of  the comments on that particular post. Frankly, I wouldn't know where to find it again. If he/she asked a question and did not use the Reply button, I'd have no idea that a question was posed to me.

This student's reply to me appeared as a comment on a recent post of mine that had nothing to do with the original topic. It was like graffitti. He/she found a place to post, and went for it.

One of my remarks that this student took great umbrage with me was regarding a statement I made about completing over $20,000,000 worth of stock market and futures trades over a 27 month period. I referred to them as "round-trip" trades. He (sorry, I'm getting tired of writing he/she - although, from the tone and temperment of the reply, I'm pretty safe at assuming the student was male)... He had never heard the term "round-trip" trade in his seven years of higher education in finance. Sorry, to a floor trader or any active trader, it's common lingo. Just like jargon that is used in hip-hop culture or by truckers, only those that are part of that culture tend to know the terminology. His lack of understanding of the term told me that he's never been where I've been, in the realm of serious market traders.

He found some definition that did not match up with my use of the term and then he goes off and says that I made it up, I'm a complete liar, and I invented the $20,000,000 figure to try to fluff up my importance.

Hmmmm... interesting. I had a trading account with over $500,000 in it at one point and I used my margin to the max and I made a ton of trades. I'm sorry if those numbers sound hyperbolic to you, but to me, it was the arena I played in. I have the tax records to prove it. My point was not to brag, but to demonstrate that "I've been operating at a level that may demand a little more respect than a kid with a 401(k) and a balance of $1,000." I've played in the major leagues. That WAS my experience.

Oh, then he goes on to call me pathetic and tried to belittle me by saying that he's had seven years of eduction at Oxford. Oxford? Wow. So what. Oxford can be wrong, too.

Oxford has a reputation for being a bastion of liberal thinking. As far as the economic ideas he stated go, that thinking has no substantiation, historically. It's never worked, and that was my point.

He also went on to add that I was negatively influencing young voters and not giving them a chance by spewing my thoughts. What? By telling the truth? By telling what I learned from living in the trenches of the big money game for 27 months? I responded to him by saying that we come from two different reference points - me from the front line, him from the classroom. I've been in the front seat and had both hands on the wheel in white knuckle trading for a long time. From his remarks, I'd have to assume he's done nothing in the real world. I've also owned several businesses and paid huge sums of taxes each year on the level of what some would consider a good annual salary. I've been there, and done it. I told him, the view is different from the front seat versus the back seat.

Theory is great, but it needs to be tested. When you get onto the playing field, you'll learn through experience nuances and things that didn't get answered in the chapter summary questions to Chapter 5 in the Big Book Of Economic Ideas.

I reiterated, "Ask for a refund on your tuition." And I'm serious. In his reply to me, he offered no counter-argument to my point. Instead he used a typical liberal tactic - attack and discredit. You don't address the issue, you go after the messenger. If you can't beat the messenger down, then you go after their credibility.

We saw this with "Joe The Plumber" in the last election. Joe had a point. But the liberal media went after his tax returns and every other travail in his life to make him look like an idiot. The strategy was to create enough of a distraction so that the original point, which was valid, was obscured by all of the smoke created by the character cross-burning. This tactic is used by ideologues and those that have an agenda, not by those that want to look at the whole and make it better. Discourse - ridiculous. Facts - you suck.

My key point to my critic was about our current political leadership. The fact is we have a president with the thinnest resume in history. That is a fact. It's not a debatable issue. If you want to imagine that he has super powers, go for it. But the fact is, he has nothing of substance in his past that would qualify him to be the leader of the greatest nation on earth. He had a lousy opponent, a tainted opposing party, a well-run campaign and perfect timing and he won the presidential lottery. Got for him. I'm wondering what it will mean for us.

President Obama has created over 150,000 government jobs since he took office. But they do nothing for the overall economy. If everyone will someday work for the government, then we're on a cannabilistic path to socialism. Government needs to create a healthy environment for industry to flourish. Too restrictive and the tax generators in the economy don't grow. It's not complicated. But it sure isn't the path we're on now. My point is not politically rooted because the Bush administration shackled our children with billions of dollars of legacy spending that we may never recover from and I don't consider myself a member of either party.

If you have a different viewpoint, state it. But to call me names and try to tear apart my factual personal experiences is not the way to win an argument. A number of years ago, in an atheist chat forum, they had a rule posted that they expected all of the participant to abide by:

Thursday, my 8-year-old daughter graduated from second grade, and presented me with a report card filled with A's. Her transformation from the child I knew in the fall has been amazing. Even though she seems mature beyond her years, she's still a kid. And as of noon yesterday, summer vacation started!

Throughout the twenty-five minute ride home, she beamed with pride about her report card, catalyzed by the excitement and anticipation of SUMMER VACATION. Every fun thing you could imagine was on her mind and she had to tell me about them, "Dad, we could do this... Dad, I can't wait until we go to... Oh, oh, oh, Dad, we could try... Dad, Dad, Dad.... What are we going to play FIRST?" Her energy carried us all the way home.

We celebrated with an evening out at Peter Piper Pizza.Video games, pepperoni on soft dough and unlimited sodas were consumed with gleeful frerocity until closing. We were the last customers to leave.

Today, she slept in until 9 am, but woke up ready to play. I miss those halcyon days of having one thing on your agenda: PLAY!

The years between six and ten are so magical. You're not old enough to baby-sit or mow lawns without parental supervision; and you haven't made that transition to being engrossed with friends and "hanging out".. Life is so simple. No worries. No cares. Just PLAY!

Fortunately, I'm a writer and an online entrepreneur, so my office is the La-Z-Boy chair next to her computer in our combined kitchen/living room. As I attempted to get through my daily responsibilities this morning on my laptop, she was feverishly trying to get a high score on Burger Shop. Spongebob and Nick TV provided a soundtrack for the excitement.

When she became bored with burgers, it was off to the pantry to grab the giant plastic bag of fluffy, white marshmallows and start blowing them up in the microwave. A brief pause to gulp chicken noodle soup for breakfast and she was back at the computer, watching silly Japanese game shows on YouTube. I'm glad she used headphones during that activity. Listening to six Japanese game contestants machine-gun cackling answers in their native tongue is maddening. I hear the FBI uses those shows during interrogations.

Lunch was a microwaved slice of pizza from the night before and now she's creating science experiments in the kitchen sink, directly behind me and out of my view. I may have to take a peek in a second to make sure her experiment doesn't prompt a call to my property and casualty agent.

Now, I have to leave my office and join the play. For an hour before her mom picks her up for the weekend at 3pm, I'll enjoy the best hour of my day. 

Oh... to play. Play all day. Play, play and play. A great way to spend the day. Nothing to think about but play, play and play.

"Dad, what can we play?" is all she'll say. It's not my way, but she won't let me stay. I have to play, that's what she'll say. "But I have bills to pay."

"It's OK". "As soon as you're done Dad, we can play."

If you were 8 again... what would you play all day? I can't wait to hear what you say. I have to go. It's time to play.

---

Posted by Roger Blazic
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Because I haven't been as active with this blog account, I have yet to receive piles of bashing and criticism. Although, on my youRloved account on Revelife fistfights occur on a regular basis.

The majority of this post was part of a comment to saintvi on Xanga regarding a post she made titled "Be Nice"

Her post centered around some of the gratuitous egg throwing that pops up in the comment section of some posts. I wrote this advice to her:

Know this: You only have to pay attention to those who have DONE SOMETHING in life. I see you're a Premium member and a TRUE member. You've done something. This post is full of wisdom and intelligent observation. When people respond with expletives and "You suck" they haven't even learned how to communicate in English. So why waste time acknowledging them? They tend to be young, immature and full of themselves. You're right, if you're over 35 on any of the blogs associated with Xanga, you feel like the room supervisor.

When I get some kid - because it is almost never a mature adult - who writes three misspelled, grammar-free phrases as a critique of my post without punctuation, I have to determine how many microns of value I will apply to the comment.

I'm a writer. I have created over 70 blogs this year. A third are for an Internet project, about 7-8 are private data catalogs, 10 are nearly barren but are in development and about 25 or 30 have full customized original artwork, which I did myself. Regular content is added to them at least once a week. I own over 25 website addresses that are longer-term projects. Everything I've listed, I started since February 21, 2009 - 97 days ago. I built a 200 page private website just to control the operations. The Control Center allows me to manage all of the usernames, associated email address, production notes, advertising, and art catalog - all components necessary for me to go to work each day. I have a massive Internet plan that will someday make me very wealthy.

So, when I get a kid who couldn't buck up the $25 to be a premium member, hasn't learned grammar and can't find a spell checker telling me that I suck or that I'm an idiot... Hmmmmm? What have YOU done? The answer is always ZERO.

Oh, they might have a fine job and a nice relationship and a good car, but compared to what I'm doing, they can't stand in the same http://

I really doubt that if the editor of Rolling Stone Magazine were to find one of my posts that he'd write, YOU SUCK A-HOLE, in the comment section. He might tell me I'm completely off-base, mis-informed, not well versed on the subject, whatever - and that would be a comment I would welcome and learn from.

I have thousands of credits on my 7 Xanga/Revelife/Dollarsh sites (I have also paid for four Premium Memberships). Every single comment posted on my blogs that I reply to, gets a mini. Even the ones who curse at me. It's a subtle way to say, "You have nothing, you've offered nothing; here, take 5 credits and buy a book that teaches you something."

Also from saintvi's post was the creation of THUMPER DAY. To paraphrase, she wanted to adopt the wisdom of Thumper - If you ain't got something nice to say - SHUT UP. Yes, I have taken some liberty with my paraphrasing, but I have a point. If you cannot contribute or offer an intelligent critique or rebuke, then SHUT UP. Leaving cuss words as a comment is a waste of everyone's time.

I love THUMPER DAY. But I don't want her to shy away from the truth. Satire, at least good satire, requires a certain level of keen observation that 90% of the population has not acquired. It is an important means of exposing the hypocrisy of the masses.

Opinions about comedy, writing, food and sex are all subjective. Who you like and what you like are personal choices. Not everyone will like you. And, frankly, you don't need everyone to like you. As a touring stand-up comic for nearly a decade, I learned that if 1/10 of 1% of a population in a major city loves you, you will fill a hockey arena every night for a week with adoring fans. Find your voice and an audience will gather around your voice over time. The critics will diminish in volume and become to look more and more foolish.

At the root of the problem is that today's younger people have no respect for people of experience. Reality Shows on TV teach our youth to be arrogant and "all that" - wisdom takes time. I write a daily blog from The Book Of Wisdom found in The Bible as The Book of Proverbs called Proverb A Day. Atheism is growing in popularity. The Book of Wisdom is being deemed less relevant. It shows. Ignorance is on the rise. And because of the Internet, more and more people get to shamelessly showcase their ignorance. (See "Jackass" on YouTube)They form in packs and high-five each other, supporting and encouraging their ignorance. I told saintvi, "Your voice is NEEDED. It's good common sense and decency. It should be listened to and modeled after." That's MY OPINION and I've DONE SOMETHING in life. And right now, I feel like I'm just getting started on a journey that will make everything in the past look small.

I finished my comment to saintvi by writing, "If I could give you a 300 credit mini, I would. Keep the faith. Ignore the kids. Give them a time out when you feel necessary, like on this post.

Bravo. I'm a subscriber. "

---

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